AN: references made to episode Need to Know
He took a sip of coffee from a porcelain cup. A woman sitting opposite him had already put the cup on a saucer with delicate golden motives. She looked around the impeccable room and smiled slightly. George appeared to look only at her. But Jane Winterson knew that George did it only out of courtesy and that he was taking in every detail in the room and outside too, even though he wouldn't have to. He'd been in this room for many a friendly discussion with her late husband, the second secretary of the prime minister.
"George, I know you do live for your work and I understand why you didn't start a family when young… but you can keep working and take a look at the life outside of work at the same time."
"CI5 agents are at work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you know this Jane," he said and made a dismissive gesture with his hand.
"George, I'm not telling you to marry someone, I'm just pushing you to try to at least acknowledge that women, beautiful women, do exist and they would love to share a moment with you," she finished diplomatically.
He looked at her strangely.
Jane laughed and in a somewhat high-pitched voice explained: "I don't mean myself, George. Calm down. I'll be always honouring James' memory, may he rest in peace. You are always welcomed here as a friend and always will be."
"Oh, Jane, I wasn't thinking even in the slightest…" he said.
She, with the natural skill of a politician's wife changed the topic of the conversation even though it seemed to her that the look on his face was still a bit unusual.
x-x-x
Bodie kissed Barbara goodnight. "Or is it Serena?" he thought. "I haven't drunk that much…"
Outside the bar he took a breath of fresh air. Doyle looked after him pensively.
Bodie was in a weird mood and was quite happy he left the bar already. It's a never-ending cycle. Putting on stylish clothes and an ironic half-smile, attracting a girl, complimenting the girl or kissing her, taking the girl home for a night, leaving the girl because a phone rings and a new mission awaits… forgetting about the girl, trying to make up… On the other hand, there was nothing wrong with it, Bodie mused during his solitary way home.
For a flicker of a second he saw a darker shadow and immediately teared the gun from the holster.
"Lorenzo," Bodie muttered under his breath.
"Krivas says hi," the shadow said.
"Krivas is rotting in jail."
"Might be, but he's always ready to help his old pals."
"You've never been his pal."
"Let's not be hair-splitting. Ok, Bodie, I admit, he may have done it thanks to a little financial incentive…"
"What? What might he have done? He's in prison with the highest security. Not exactly much to do even with little financial incentive," Bodie barked.
"A cop and so naïve, it might surprise you, dear Bodie, but some people do use security boxes in banks and store there some materials…"
Bodie shrugged his shoulders and then pointed a gun at Lorenzo.
"I think we've been talking for too long."
"Let's go to the heart of the matter," Lorenzo laughed despite the gun Bodie was pointing at him.
"When I talked about materials I meant materials like this," he said and took a polaroid photo of his pocket. A polaroid photo of half-naked Bodie kissing a naked man somewhere in a jungle.
Bodie quickly grabbed the photo and tore it into pieces.
"My friend, this won't help you," Lorenzo laughed again. "There are dozens of these photos. And if I won't return to my people's place in thirty minutes, Cowley will have a nice envelope with an even nicer photo tomorrow on his desk."
"What do you want?" Bodie snarled at him.
"Just a little help with our thing. By our thing I of course mean Cosa Nostra," Lorenzo winked.
"We'll give you instructions shortly. Do you want a souvenir?" Lorenzo asked and threw a handful of photos on the ground.
x-x-x
Bodie chewed his lip. "This is a problem. Like giant load of a problem," Bodie swore, bent down, collected the photos and unlocked the door.
He ordered all the photos into a staple and wanted to tear them apart but in the last moment he stopped. "Antonio," he thought and touched the photo.
"Quite ironic that he was the same nationality as the skunk Lorenzo."
Antonio loved the jungle and the rush of covert operations and battles. He never wanted to leave the jungle and return to his home country. And well, his wish got fulfilled. He lies buried there, somewhere in Angola. They were always careful but apparently not enough. Someone took pictures of them. Bodie sighed. He really liked Antonio. He wasn't sleeping with him because there would be lack of chicks as some prisoners say when they are locked up for so long that it ceases to matter who is who. Nope, there were pretty girls in the jugles, in Angola, Algeria… Bodie chewed his lip again thinking about the woman Krivas shot. There were girls and there was Antonio… It wasn't mutually exclusive.
x-x-x
Cowley got into his car and slammed the wheel. The mission was a success. Of course, it was a success, it was his mission. He calculated the enemy's every move. Some would argue that he needlessly endangered the lads but they were healthy, they check their lungs every year. They were able to handle the gas… But he failed. Cowley pursed his lips. He failed himself and his principles. He petted Bodie's hair for god's sake. In the middle of a mission! Hair of his subordinate! Of a man!
People thought it was such a sacrifice for him that he didn't have a family and his sole focus was only the security of the country. He let them believe it. Though his job gave him the opportunity to look at and to watch countless of young, well-built, intelligent men. He watched them as a stern superior but in rare moments he allowed himself to marvel at their bodies.
"Ha, bodies," Cowley laughed out loud bitterly.
"Bodie."
Cowley was brutally honest with himself in his own mind: that was beyond physical attraction. He felt connection to the man. That was a fact. But he couldn't allow himself to act on it. Bodie would laugh into his face. He would lose his reputation, his job, everything. He'd be just another queer for both Bodie and Doyle. "But they didn't notice anything. Initially they were pretty out of it. So what is one touch?" he tried to calm himself down.
x-x-x
Someone knocked on the door. Bodies panicked and put the pictures into the fridge. He was still panting when he opened the door for Doyle.
"Aren't you supposed to be enjoying life with Theresa? We just had our new birthday yesterday after surviving Cowley's gas attack," Bodie tried to joke.
"Said bye bye to Theresa and went to check up on you."
"You think I need to be checked up upon?"
"The new birthday was quite tough on you. You didn't look that well yesterday…"
"I'm my shiny self today, though."
"Cheers to that!" Doyle said and immediately opened the fridge to take two cans of beer out of it.
Doyle fell silent.
"I… just…. Get out, Doyle. Get out!" Bodie shouted. "Don't …. if you can, forget it. Don't tell anyone," he begged the next second.
"Who's that?"
"Why do you ask this?" Bodie asked incredulous that this is Doyle's first question.
"Looks like he mattered to you so I want to know his name."
"Antonio," Bodie sighed and slumped on the sofa.
"They are blackmailing me," Bodie said in a low voice.
"Who? This Antonio."
Bodie jumped from the sofa. "Tonio would never. Not him. He's long dead. He would never do it… Cosa Nostra. Krivas or someone from his comrades took the pics and he sold it to the mafia."
"You have to tell Cowley."
"I can't," Bodie shouted at him.
"You have to! There's no other way. Or do you have a plan?"
"Follow Lorenzo. Kill him and as many of his companions as I can and return to Africa," Bodie announced matter-of-factly.
"Brilliant plan. You have to tell Cowley," Doyle grabbed Bodie by the collar.
"Look, I still want you as my partner. To have a chance for that, you have to tell Cowley. And if he won't take it well, you can get out of here and escape in Africa any time I guess," Doyle shrugged.
"But somehow I doubt that he'd make a fuss about it," Doyle thought. Yeah, there was fog and the gas and his head felt like exploading but he did see Cowley touching Bodie so tenderly, very differently than Doyle himself.
"I can't tell him," Bodie repeated.
"Ok, then don't say a word and just show him the pics, for god's sake, Bodie! He needs to know."
x-x-x
The next day Bodie knocked on the door of Cowley's office. He put an envelope on the desk in front of Cowley.
Cowley looked up from the pile of documents he was studying.
Cowley opened the envelope. His eyebrows shot up but Bodie would almost miss it, it was quickly gone and Cowley looked at him questioningly.
"I'm being blackmailed."
"We'll take care of it," Cowley decided.
"I won't store it here. I put documents sensitive to national security into the drawers every day but this is a different matter…," Cowley smiled a bit.
"Sir?"
"We can shred it or you want to keep them?"
"I…," Bodie gulped. "Actually I do."
"Find a safe space for them. Blackmail is an awful thing."
"That's… that's all, Sir?"
"What do you want me to say, Bodie?"
"I expected some yelling, swearing…"
"I'll save it for that Lorenzo," Cowley said dryly.
"Case closed, gentleman. A cell of Cosa Nostra operating on British soil has been deactivated. I think we all deserve a glass or two of some expensive scotch.
"Eh, I actually have something," Doyle coughed. "What's her name? Yeah, well, Theresa. She asked… Well, I asked her. We are going… somewhere. Uhm, yeah… So, have a nice evening. Sir, Bodie," Doyle blabbered and left.
"So it's only us. You and me, Bodie," Cowley said and Bodie would swear that he winked.
Cowley put the empty glass on the counter.
"Tell me something about Antonio."
"I would have never imagined talking with anyone about Antonio. And talking with you, Sir…"
"I would have never imagined many things, Bodie, many things. For example admitting that I'm not shocked. Or that it was quite a nice sight, the photos…"
Bodie gulped.
"You mean, you mean the half-naked photos?"
"Were there any other?" Cowley winked. "I also would have never imagined that me of all people would have to think about my own rule, no fraternisation between agents!"
Bodie opened his mouth. "Oh, well, you made the rules. You can change them or choose not to see that they are being broken," he suggested.
"Well, that's a problem I'll have to deal with as a boss some time later, but tonight I'm not the boss."
"Even though we are on duty 24/7?"
"That has never stopped you or Doyle from enjoying some company of young and attractive women. So what's one evening in a bar?" Cowley said and played with the empty tumbler, turning it in his hand upside down and up again.
"Can I have a question, Sir? I would have never asked, but Doyle… he sometimes surprises me. He's watching. Not like me, for the easiest or saftest way out, for possible danger. Nah, was a cop, of course, he does that too, it's just… he watches and sees connections, relationships, emotions. I'm not much into that. And in my defence, I have to say that I was pretty much out of it because the gas grenades were unexpected if I can say…"
"Bodie, are you gonna finish a sentence any time soon?"
"I'm just, Sir, ehm Doyle thinks and now when I think about it I think I felt that… I mean you did, you touched my face and my hair…"
"Any complaints?"
Bodie opened his mouth again. "Actually yes. As I said I was pretty much out of it and didn't enjoy it properly."
"Would you like me to repeat it, Bodie?"
"I would actually very much like you to repeat it."
"In this case I suggest you drink more quickly."
"I can't believe, you, the whisky connoisseur, would make me drink quicker." Now, it was Bodie's time to wink.
Suddenly, Cowley's expression turned more serious.
"On the other hand, I would understand if you just wanted to finish the drink and then leave the bar. Alone. Because there are not attractive young women, as I've joked about it. I'm not young, attractive and I'm not a woman…"
Bodie laughed. "I'm quite aware. I mean of the last part. Though I very clearly remember that just yesterday you protested that you were not so old when Doyle said you were a ruthless old bastard."
"We can agree that some words don't have very clear definitions," Cowley said and ordered another shot.
"Like fraternization. I've been so scared of your rules that I haven't explored it at all."
"This is not true," Cowley laughed.
Suddenly they looked at each other, surprised. Cowley's hand was on Bodie's one.
"So let's go and find out about the fraternisation!"