A/N: Was able to get this out quickly and hopefully it can continue this way! Thanks to BoandNora-ItsOneWord, ShanRB, 4gcrazyme and Guest for reviewing! Hope you enjoy this.
"Listen, I need to get out to the island."
"Ah, forget it," the boatman said as he continued down the dock, hands in his pocket. He nudged a chin at the black sky. "I'm not gonna take ya out tonight."
Losing patience faster than usual, Robert whipped out his badge and shoved it in the man's face. "Hey, I can commandeer your crummy boat if I have to, alright?" Over the man shoulder, Anna came into view, rubbing her arms at the chill. Robert sighed. "Get outta here."
"What's with you, man?" he grumbled before walking off to the rest of his night.
Robert approached Anna, scanning her quickly for anything out of order. She appeared to pass muster, other than the fact that she was freezing. He pulled off his jacket. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, what happened at the Bureau?" she said in one breath, watching him closely.
"What happened was that they shut me out," Robert said bitterly as he wrapped her up in the coat, adjusting it around her shoulders. "You were out there with him, right?" He gave it a final shake before his hands left her shoulders. Anna likely read the warning tone and didn't answer that immediately.
"…did Ross say anything to you?"
Knowing what she was doing, Robert shook his head. "Anna, what's going on here? What's this about a collaboration, with Robin?"
"She told you about the letter?" Anna ventured and Robert turned away angrily.
"Yeah, she's gonna be working with a famous author!" he said, retreading Robin's own excitement. Anna crinkled her nose.
"No, she's not, he—ah," Anna seemed to be struggling with how to phrase it, and Robert was sure that no matter how she dressed it up, he wasn't going to like it. "Faison is calling in his markers right now…"
Robert paused, before looking at her warily. "….meaning?"
"That he," Anna again faltered, glancing up at him from below dark lashes, "…he wants me to get to know him better or something…?"
Robert let out an angry breath before charging past her, tension in every muscle of his body. "I'll swim out there if I have to!" More and more, the prospect of killing this man was looking like the most attractive option.
Anna gripped his arm as he swung past her, begging, "no, no, no, please don't do that—"
"Listen, what else went on out there?!" Robert demanded, swinging back around at her touch, his momentum forcing her to back up as he faced her. He couldn't help it, his rage had been building ever since he spoke with Robin and the night air wasn't going to cool it. Worse yet, he couldn't keep the accusation from his voice, and Anna picked up on that rather well.
"What, nothing!" Anna said indignantly. "I—" she sighed and gave him a deprecating smile, as if just realizing that they were about to erupt into an argument on the docks. "I don't want to talk about this here. Can we go somewhere?"
Her home was not an option, as Robin would potentially be in earshot. Robert's hand slipped under her arm. "Yeah, let's go to the club, come on."
They went in relative silence. Robert didn't trust himself to speak at the moment, at least not until he could get his thoughts in order. It was alarming how this man's…obsession could get under his skin. And he knew, he knew Anna was chafing under this protectiveness and it was mucking up his relationship with Katherine, but he didn't know how to stop this train now that it had set off. It was as if thirteen years had never passed and he knew everything that he hadn't back then, and he was just trying to keep himself and Anna afloat. And their daughter besides!
And how could he protect either of them when when it came to this man, Anna always ran off to confront him alone? She had shut him out from the beginning on this, starting with Casey—that day she kicked him out of her house, and when she was on the run and everybody was breathing down his neck.
"You shouldn't have gone alone," he finally said through gritted teeth. She cast him a surprised look, but didn't respond, which only stoked his frustration. "You're giving him what he wants every time you hare off to visit him on that island."
"And what would you prefer, Robert?" she asked after several long moments. "Should I have had Robin write an enthusiastic acceptance for his offer? Invited him over so they could discuss their new book?"
"Oh come on!" Robert said. "You know what I mean! I'm sure he was practically salivating over the fact that the first sign of trouble had you running over there. What do ya think his next trick will be?!"
"Well it's better than you running over there!" Anna shot back. She yanked open the first door to the club and they were greeted by the music within, though neither of them paid much notice. "I don't think one letter needs to devolve into bloodshed!"
Robert sighed as Angel caught them by the entrance and watched him appraise them both before politely saying in a stage whisper, "Robert, I'm glad you're here! Your table—"
"We'll be back in just a moment, Angel. We're gonna go to the back for a minute, until the set's over," Robert cut across him and smiled widely, patting Anna on the back and causing her to discretely shrug him off.
Angel nodded helplessly before casting a glance at the stage. "Well, alright, I'll see ya then. I'll let Kate know you're here."
"Yeah, thanks Angel," Robert nodded without looking and followed Anna to the back, to Kate's dressing room.
Robert pushed the door with unnecessary force and Anna caught it before it slammed, looking aggravated. "Look. I know I shouldn't have gone out there, but I did! So stop going on about it and just listen to what happened!"
He spun around and gestured to her with near wildness. "How in the hell could you have been so—so…" He couldn't even think of a word. Anna groaned, her hands clasped to her chest and bent towards him, like she did when she wanted him to really listen to her.
"I—I was panicked when I read the letter!"
Robert calmed minutely and straightened, trying to find reason in all of this. "Why would he break his word like that?"
"You broke yours!" Anna replied, as if he had asked if two plus two equaled four.
"Ah!" Robert spat derisively. Desiree, it had to be. If that was considered breaking his word with a man who had no honor…
"He found out that you'd gone snooping around about Desiree's death. He's not gonna lay low after something like that."
"Is that what he said?" Robert said belligerently. "Is that the reason he wants Robin? To tell about the tr—"
"No!"
"Then what the hell is going on?!" Robert yelled. Anna closed her eyes and walked around him, running her hands through her long hair before burying her fact in them.
"He just—he wants…he wants his Davnee—"
"Oh, she doesn't exist!" Robert snarled.
"Yes she does, it's me!"
"Then he's out of his tree!" They were both shouting and Robert swept his hand out cuttingly. It made him sick, this whole fantasy that Faison had built up in his head. And his wife—ex-wife being the subject of these delusions was enough to drive him to put a fist through the wall. He stepped away from her, slumping over a side table, likely looking as exhausted as he felt. And then he felt the heat of Anna's nearness as she lowered her voice.
"Robert, the more we keep pushing him, the more determined he is to fight back!" Robert grunted in grudging agreement and he felt Anna gentle away, clearly gearing up to present some sort of plan to him. And he hoped she had a better one than he did.
"That's why…I think…if I just go along with him, then we can solve all this…"
Forget it, she had a terrible plan. "You're not going back out there again," Robert ordered in the most authoritative voice he could scrounge up. He couldn't even believe she was suggesting this!
"He's gonna lose it, Robert."
"I said no! Now listen." He paused, knowing that if anything were to come out of this conversation, it was the clear recognition of the fact that Anna would never step foot in Faison's presence again if Robert could help it. He couldn't believe it? He should have known she would suggest this. "We've called this—we've done this your way so far, now I call the shots—"
"No!"
"I said NO!" Robert exploded. How could he make her understand the dangerous game she proposed? And what it meant to him? "Thirteen years ago—thirteen years ago this guy…this guy on that wretched Spoon Island split us up. Well it isn't gonna happen again!"
His words were so loud, he felt they almost echoed off the walls. But that couldn't be true. His hands were clasping her upper arms tightly, but they loosened as Anna took a quick step back from him, her expression unreadable while he stared back, his heart moving furiously in his chest. What he meant by that….
What had he meant? He hadn't been thinking when he said it. He only said what was true, down to the core of him.
It was one of those moments again—the ones they did their best to ignore. Times where she was in his arms and smiling at him, and before he could stop himself, he briefly imagined that she was still his wife. Her dark eyes looked into his and he saw that charming girl, the one with the secret in the corner of her mouth, wanted by every male agent in the WSB and it was him she loved.
The last time it happened, they were in the hospital and he was embracing another
woman, but it was their eyes that were locked. And he was a fool because it was the one time it happened when he truly did her wrong…it was the time she actually needed him.
He knew that she felt it too.
"It's not going to happen…" Anna said softly, too soft to break the spell. Anna looked as if she wanted to go to him, but didn't dare. So Robert touched her on impulse, feeling numb though two fingers traced her cheek. There was a question in her eyes, and when she turned her head slightly, the spell was broken and his fingers faded off of her skin.
"Anna, I don't know what we're doing here," he finally said. "Half the time, I'm in a bloody time warp and suddenly we're back in Paris." He paced away from her, turning his back because he didn't know how else to say it. "God, if Sean hadn't told us what he did, I…it shouldn't change anything."
"But it does?" Anna asked. It was frustrating, he couldn't read her voice either, he couldn't figure out what she was thinking and it was driving him insane. "What are you trying to say, Robert?"
"I'm saying…" well, might as well be honest. It was Robert's default setting, anyway. "I'm saying that I still feel weird about what Sean told us about our marriage." He turned around again, emboldened by the release of that truth, to find her standing very still.
"Ah," she exhaled, not meeting his eyes. "I see."
"What?" he said, bothered by what she clearly wasn't saying.
"Well…why? Why does it make you feel weird? Is it because Sean kept going on about how we were meant to be together and he ruined it or is it because you want me away from Faison so badly that you're willing to manipulate my feelings to—"
"No! Of course not!" Robert exclaimed, offended she would even suggest such a thing. "How could you even—"
"Well then it doesn't change anything," Anna said, speaking more quickly over him. "Don't you see, Robert? I'm still the woman that agreed to betray her country one more time because they threatened her husband's life. I'm still the double agent that you found meeting with a DVX contact. You're still the man that chose to save your wife's life, knowing what the punishment would be for an innocent man—a man we both worked with. I'm still the operative that Faison trained, Robert. I always will be. Nothing Sean said changed any of that."
"No…" Robert said slowly, examining her more closely, the rapid speaking, the way one hand repeatedly worried a long strand of her hair. There was dishonesty in her gestures, and he was finally understanding why.
"You're afraid," he said, awed.
"No…"
"No, you are," Robert responded emphatically. "D'you think I don't know you after all this time? But what are you afraid of?"
Anna rubbed her arms uncomfortably and looked away. "We're getting off-track…"
"No, I think we're right on track, luv." He stopped, going over her words. "What Sean told us did change something. For me. I don't know how to go back to normal."
"Well, we didn't talk about it when it happened, so why start now?" Anna shrugged combatively, but Robert was not to be dissuaded now that he finally understood something about her demeanor. He wouldn't leave it now.
"I shouldn't have left like I did at the hospital after that. I was…I was selfish and I didn't know what I was feeling. And that's you right now. Tell me I'm wrong."
"You're wrong!" Anna shouted, her demeanor cracking so the upset came over her face. "Oh, Robert, what is the point of all this? If you want me to help you—to make you feel better, I can't! You say that you can't forget thirteen years ago, well neither can I! The look on your face when I woke up and saw you there at my bedside… and that I had done it to you! I carried that scar around for years and removing it didn't make me forget. And now Faison is here…" her voice shook terribly, her brown eyes glistening, "and if there was any peace in this world at all, the two of you would never have met."
It was reminiscent of when he found her on Spoon Island in that dress, ready to sell herself for that very price. She was afraid then too and it hurt his heart.
"I wish Sean had never said a thing," Anna said bitterly. "Maybe then you could forget a time when I was this…this albatross hanging around your neck. And then I wouldn't have to think of the day you looked at me like I had taken everything from you."
He was floored by her words—words he hadn't heard since they met for a second time, before he knew about Robin. And just like then, knowing the truth, he felt a tenderness for her that he had never felt for another person. But how could she be so wrong?
"I couldn't," he said hoarsely. "I've never…"
"You have, you did," she said, and he could hear the tears. "I didn't need Sean to tell me. And God help me, but I can't take that tonight. Not toni—"
He was kissing her before he had any thought in his head to do it. He was kissing Anna like his life depended on it—or hers. All he knew was that he couldn't hear any more of it and that rush of tenderness brought him alive and moved him. How could she not have known?
His hands were holding her face and she smelled of that clean perfume she wore and salty air, and silken strands of hair slipped over his knuckles and he couldn't stop. It was being lit on fire for a second time.
And God help her, she was kissing back.
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Katherine was halfway to the cottage before she would allow any tears to fall, but by the time she was willing to give herself that reprieve, they didn't come. All she had was an empty certainty about what she needed to do. And that was simply to leave.
She was strangely grateful, she decided, that she had not walked in and interrupted them. In truth, she hadn't had to stay long to hear all that she could take.
That guy on that wretched Spoon Island split us up, well it isn't going to happen again!
It hurt…it hurt terribly to hear it all so plainly, and confirmed in so many different ways. Robert thought of Anna as his, and he was never going to stop thinking that way. Perhaps if Robert had gotten his wish years ago, he would have never been apart from Anna…Katherine didn't know, because Robert never spoke about his divorce. So she could only imagine the worst…and now it seemed that she had every right.
Robert vowed that the mysterious man on the island wouldn't split them up…and now, neither would Katherine. Her deepest wish was that Robert had just told her how he felt before they had gotten involved so deeply…it would have saved them all so much trouble.
But it didn't matter anymore. She knew now and she wouldn't stand in Anna's way for another minute. The only thing left was to wait for Robert to come home and have an honest conversation with him, because despite everything, she owed him a reason.
No, she wasn't going to skulk out into the night like she had anything to be ashamed of. All three of them were adults, and it was time they started acting like it.
A/N: I wouldn't have had an R/A kiss in here while he was with Katherine, if I didn't have proof that Robert WOULD, in fact, do something like that if overcome with the impulse (with Anna, while married to Holly). This kiss was just a bit more heated. And herein lies where we veer off into more romantic territory. But at the same time, Robert is an honorable character at his core and I won't ruin that. So there will be no dirty affair or the likes. Thanks for reading, let me know what you think ;)
