Chapter 4
Bryan's arm draped across her, as if he still didn't want to let her go even in sleep. Finola could hear his steady breathing. She smiled, snuggled into him and drifted back to sleep.
A buzzing vibrated nearby. Finola realized that's the noise that had woken her in the first place. It had to be Bryan's phone on the nightstand. She winced when she remembered she'd left her own phone back in her hotel room.
She noticed sunlight peeking through the crack in the curtain. Inwardly, she groaned, not wanting to move. It surprised her Bryan didn't wake up at the buzzing of the phone. He was always so alert to the call of the job. Of course, he was probably exhausted after their strenuous, overnight activities.
Before she finished debating about whether to wake Bryan up or not, a loud knock sounded at the door.
Bryan bolted upright and leapt out of the bed. His eyes darted in every direction, his whole body on alert as he searched the room for threats. Definitely the training of a soldier, which she admired, especially since he only had on his boxer briefs.
He looked at her as she sat up, the sheet wrapped around her. He seemed to assess her condition, assuring himself she hadn't been harmed in any way. He started to say something when another knock at the door cut him off. His head whipped in that direction.
"Umm, Agent Beneventi?" asked a timid male voice from the other side of the door.
"Gimme a minute!" Bryan yelled. For the second time in twenty-four hours, Bryan scrambled to pull his clothes on.
Finola did the same. Never had they been caught like this in the same room. She sure didn't want to get caught half naked.
Bryan, now fully clothed, unlocked the door and cracked it open only far enough to stick his head out. "Terry?"
"Good morning. Tom said you weren't answering your phone so he sent me up here. He wanted to let you know we're heading out in an hour," Terry, the newest and youngest technician on the team, told him.
"Thanks." Bryan attempted to close the door.
"Wait! One more thing. Have you heard from Agent Jones?"
Finola groaned inwardly.
Terry continued. "She's not answering her phone either and it doesn't seem she's in her hotel room. Do you think maybe she went running or something?"
Bryan glanced back at her. A blush crept up his face. Apparently, embarrassment wasn't an emotion he'd been trained to hide.
So this was what the walk of shame felt like, Finola mused. Since she'd finished getting dress, she nodded permission to him.
Bryan cleared his throat awkwardly. "She's actually here," he told Terry and opened the door wider.
"Hi, Terry!" Finola greeted the young technician cheerfully.
Terry's eyes grew so wide she worried they'd pop out of his head. All he could say was "Oh!"
She attempted to make this seem totally natural. "We'll make sure we're downstairs within the hour. Thanks so much for letting us know!"
Terry nodded dumbly, then walked away.
Bryan shut the door. He grabbed his phone and grumbling as he looked at it. "Three missed messages."
Giggles erupted from Finola. She couldn't help herself. This whole thing had become absurd!
Brow furrowed, Bryan asked, "You think this funny?"
Finola tried to answer him but peals of laughter just kept coming. She couldn't get a word out.
Bryan's head tilted. Slowly, a tiny smile formed on his lips, obviously amused by her. Until finally, he joined her laughter.
As the laughter worked its way out of her, she collapsed on the bed, breathing rapidly. "His face..." she chuckled.
He sat down next to her, grinning. "Yeah, he really had no idea how it react to that realization." His face grew thoughtful as he gazed down at her. "Seriously, they're going to split us up. Partners aren't allowed to fraternize like this."
Finola sighed. "I wonder if they'll recall me to London."
Bryan frowned, obviously not liking that idea. He didn't say anything in response to that. Instead, he said, "We better get going." He headed toward the bathroom but paused. She saw him bend over to pick something up off the floor. "What is this?"
Finola saw the piece of paper with Plan B scrawled upon it clutched in his hand. She snatched it away. "I promise, it's nothing you have to worry about."
He stood silent for a moment, then shrugged. "Okay."
XXXXXXX
As they boarded the plane, Finola felt a hand on her elbow before she could find a seat.
"I need to talk to you," Dr. Patel said into her ear. Then she guided Finola past the main body of seats and deeper into the plane.
Bryan's eyes met hers as she passed, but there wasn't anything he could do. He gave her half a smile before sitting in his seat. She noticed he tossed his go-bag on the seat next to him rather than stowing back where they were usually kept in the overhead compartments. It warmed her to know he saved her a seat.
At the back of the plane, Dr. Patel turned on her with a stern face. "You were supposed to avoid contact with Agent Beneventi. But then I hear you're in his room this morning? I'm going to need an explanation."
"I don't remember you ever explicitly saying we couldn't contact each other," Finola countered.
"It was heavily implied!" She rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "What happened last night?"
Finola certainly had no intentions of telling this woman of their sexual escapades, but she didn't like lying either. She got as close to the truth as possible.
"He's my partner and I knew he was really upset about what happened yesterday. I couldn't sleep so I texted him to see if he was awake. He was so I went over there to talk to him. He refused to believe he hadn't hurt me. We managed to work it all out and now we're good with each other again."
"I'm glad for you two, but you realize this is all going into my report. I'm not having nearly so many problems with the other two agents in the same position," she grumbled.
"How come I'm the only one getting in trouble for this?" Finola complained.
"Oh, this will be addressed with both of you when get back to Orbital. You're lucky you were found in his room, which implies you went to him. This might be sexist, but it would have been a lot worse for him if he'd been found in your room. That would have been a real HR nightmare!"
Finola shook her head. "I told you before, neither of us had control when influenced by the debris. And last night was just two adults working things out. Now, may I go back to my seat?"
She nodded. "Don't forget to get that pill," she added as Finola walked away to the main cabin.
Bryan had obviously been watching for her and moved his bag off the seat as she approached.
She plopped down next to him.
"You okay?" he whispered to her.
She rolled her eyes. "Just got scolded like a teenager for getting caught in the cute boy's room."
Bryan laughed out loud.
