Author's Note: So I finally get to be the one starting a category. Let me just say I hope this lives up to the greatness of John le Carre's wonderful work. This is a prequel to the book/movie, following Justin and Tessa's relationship from their first meeting to her departure for Loki.
Much thanks to ZeldaDragon and BohemianCane04, my beautiful partners in crime.
Courting Coincidence
Chapter 1
"You told me once that I court coincidences," she says, ignoring his question. "By putting myself in the front line, I make things happen."
"I was admiring you for it."
"Do you still?" (pg. 73)
"I'm sorry." The angel-girl mutters the words behind her jacket, somehow managing to sound articulate even with her mouth covered by several inches of cloth. "I'm so…" Justin steps up behind her, suddenly very aware of his footfalls echoing in the now-empty lecture hall. For a moment he can't be sure whether she's crying or laughing, but the fact that she's hiding definitely strikes him as a situation in need of immediate rectification.
"Are you all right?" he asks, putting a hand on her shoulder. He feels the urge to hug her, though the rational part of his brain instantly writes this off as absurd. She is worlds away from him—the student to his teacher—and yet this does not stop him wanting to wrap her up and keep her safe, and much more beyond.
"I'm sorry," she repeats, obviously crying now. "I don't know what I was thinking."
"You were very right," offers Justin, though he's not entirely sure he agrees with her or himself. Still, he reminds himself that it's a diplomat's job to make people comfortable, even at the price of their own discomfort.
"I was very rude." The jacket comes down a little, and he can see now that her eyes are a strange mix of color—gray, mostly, with flecks of brown and green mixed in. Something about them unnerves him, and yet he cannot look away.
"Really, it's all right."
"You tried to protect me." The words come suddenly, and she jerks the jacket down into her lap. Justin resists the urge to gasp or draw away in reverence. She is beautiful, yes, but not by any conventional standards. Up close he notices her skin is porcelain pale and lightly freckled. The dark waves of her hair are loose and seem to be reaching for the slender curve of her waistline. But it is more the hardness of her jaw, the little lines of hard determination which have begun prematurely forming at the corners of her eyes that have captivated Justin's sensitive eye. After what he is sure must be an eternity of staring, he tells himself to speak, but she cuts him off again. "Thank you for that."
"Oh, um…you were fine. Really."
"I'm Tessa, by the way." She holds out a hand for him to shake, snapping out of whatever spell they've both been under.
"Justin."
"How d'you do." Very English, very conventional. Justin has the sudden urge to laugh in relief.
"You're quite scary." The words escape before he can think about what he is saying—an effect he'd notice later was one of Tessa's most powerful weapons.
"Thanks," she says flippantly, smiling as though he's just given her the compliment of a lifetime. "I don't get 'scary' very often. 'Cute' is more like it. Sometimes I can manage 'pretty' or even 'crazy.' But I must say, 'scary' is an entirely new adjective to add to my resume."
"You were rather brilliant in there though," he adds as a concession. Tessa, he can already tell, is one of those people who assert their brilliance simply by opening their mouths. She needed nothing but language to accomplish her purpose; it was an added edge that she happened to be beautiful.
"I'd like you to take me for a walk," she says by way of response, and Justin feels that he is being tested yet again. "You can tell me about the U.N."
"Tessa…" Her name comes out because he can think of nothing else to say. He senses that she is the kind of girl who always wants direct answers, yet he can think of none to give. He is fascinated by her, and terrified at the same time. There is something in the gray clarity of her eyes that tells Justin she has big plans for him and the world at large.
"Yes or no?" It was a sort of slogan of hers, but he wouldn't learn that until much later. At the moment the question simply strikes him as a request all its own, and he can see no reason to deny her. The only things waiting for him back home are suitcases needing unpacking and a pile of paperwork. Justin shrugs.
"Yes." He was answering for much more than a walk, he was sure of that, he just didn't yet know what. Tessa's smile deepens, and her face seems to glow. She is almost too brilliant to be earthly, a flame caught in the wind, burning vividly but vulnerable all the same. Again Justin feels the urge to protect her, a sort of fatherly instinct that somehow has no effect on his other feelings of attraction toward her. He is almost certain his conscience should be kicking in at any moment, but it seems to be slow in the response. Tessa is marvelous at guilting people regarding every subject but herself. Finding himself suddenly at the large glass doors to the outside, he holds one open for Tessa and watches as she floats through.
"So do you agree with me, then?" she asks, the tiny heels of her precarious suede boots clicking along the pavement as they begin to walk. Justin offers her his arm, realizing how ridiculous he must look and not particularly caring. In Tessa's world such ancient gallantry seems commonplace.
"Agree with you?"
"That Britain should've listened to the U.N. for a second before bulldozing an entire country."
"I—I don't think it's my place to say." Justin is not sure how to take this. He wants very much to pass her test, but has been too well taught in the art of taking a neutral stance to simply abandon the recorded responses his brain provides him with. Tessa shrugs, seeming to reach some conclusion about him.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I shall be able to bring you 'round in no time. Once you take me for lunch, that is." She grins devilishly at him, and Justin finds himself steering them toward an old favorite restaurant along one of the older backstreets.
They sit at a table out back in a beautiful little courtyard. It is a favorite haunt of Justin's when he is at home, the place he goes when he wants to escape his role as the Commission's token bachelor. Somehow he can't manage to be surprised at himself for bringing Tessa into his sanctuary, though the looks the waiters give him certainly say he should be. She orders what seems like an abundance of food for a woman her size, then appears to forget all about it as she argues with him.
"But you do, at least, agree that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake?" Tessa spears a piece of meat on her plate rather savagely. There is something about her charisma that makes all the political assertions coming out of her mouth sound like the most pleasant conversation in the world. The way her lips curl up at the corners as she speaks tempts him to agree simply so he can see that smile again.
"Tessa…it isn't as simple as yes or no." He searches for a way to make his words sound as convincing as hers, but somehow equivocations are never as easy to defend as cold hard morals.
"Oh isn't it? I think it is. Just about anything in life can be reduced to a question with a yes or no answer." She lets her fork clink against the plate as it falls, her eyes never leaving his face.
"No. Well I mean…I suppose I've never been able to see the simplification. If we're going to completely throw out any possibility of a peaceful coexistence at square one, let's take an issue such as…oh, I don't know, abortion, for instance. How can one simplify something that complex, and with that many view points, into a straight yes or no question?"
"That's what conscience is for," says Tessa without missing a beat. "Morals give you evidence; conscience cements the conclusion."
"You got that from a book."
"You don't give me credit."
"I…am starting to wonder about the alignment of the planets today."
"Meaning what?" She grins again, and he knows she understands exactly what he is trying so inarticulately to say. In that instant, Justin gets the sudden idea that if Tessa were only to speak for him always, his life might become much clearer. After a moment she breaks the stillness and stands up, practically skipping around the table to grab his hand. "Come on then."
"Where?" protests Justin, confused by her sudden change of heart. "I thought you were hungry. I thought you were going to convert me." He is almost a little disappointed that she hasn't entirely succeeded.
"I've decided to change tack on you." She hovers over his shoulder as he pays the bill.
"And take me where?" He laughs as she hauls him out of the restaurant by the wrist like a naughty child.
"My place. There are other forms of persuasion."
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