Disclaimer: I do not own Homeland, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.
Quinn really wished that Dar Adal had not shown up at his job that morning. He had learned many years ago that his former boss was never the bearer of good news when he turned up out of the blue, like if he were just in the neighborhood and playing a casual visit. His visits and calls were never casual, and he had just contacted him two days ago already. So when his assistant told him that he had a visitor named Dar Adal in the conference room his heart sunk. "This can't be good," he thought to himself as he closed the file in front of him and headed to meet Dar, wondering if Carrie and he would ever be free from their CIA former job. Regretfully, he knew the answer for that question too well: not really while Saul Berenson and Dar Adal were still in active service. Thank God most of their actions were classified. To be honest, he had suspected deep down since they had gotten out that the strings that linked them to their ex-bosses had not been severed by their exit. Now it was not a suspicion; it was a reality that could seriously endanger Carrie's health and the life they had built together.
Quinn was still worried about the conversation they had had early that morning. Carrie was clearly willing to help the CIA with Haqqani. She had been careful to express her opinion because she knew what his position on it was, but he knew her well. She was stubborn and her country had always come first. It was no news to him that when duty had called again over the years, she had never been strong enough to resist that call. To be honest, neither had he been. But he had changed since then, as now he cherished the life they had been able to build together, and he was both concerned and disappointed to find out about her quick reaction to her former boss and mentor's proposal. It had only taken her a shot interview with Saul and a day to shift from being totally focused on conceiving a baby to being eager to fight terrorism working for the CIA again, and he was finding it hard to come to terms with it.
He did not want her to go back to that world, because not only their life with Franny was at stake here, her mental health was, too. Quinn had seen her at her worst when they had been working on different missions together, and he had no doubt the stress and heartaches a collaboration with the Agency would certainly cause could very easily destabilize her. So as he walked down the corridor on his way to the conference room he promised himself that he would do whatever it took to stop that from happening.
Yet Quinn should have known better. The man that was waiting for him clad in a dark grey suit and a white shirt standing by the window was Adal at his best (maybe the expression 'Adal at his worst' would be more accurate for those who had crossed paths with him at some point of their lives). And it should have come as no surprise to him, given that he had witnessed many of his actions over the years, both on and off the battlefield. He had even been on the receiving end more times than he would like to remember, and he should have guessed that now Carrie would be on that very same receiving end.
This time Dar did not beat around the bush. Leaving small talk for another day, he cut to the chase as soon as Quinn entered the room. He was brief yet disturbing. According to his words, time was of the essence in this matter regarding Haqqani and the CIA Director and the NSA top rank would not hesitate to reveal some information about Carrie's dark past in order to get her on board.
At first, Quinn was surprised to feel a rush of pride wash over him. "Carrie must've been amazingly clear if they have to resort to all this. Atta girl!". "At least he's had the decency not to elaborate on Carrie's past…" he then thought as his words sunk in and he tiredly leant on the large conference table. Honestly, there was no need to. Both of them were familiar with what he was referring to. "What the fuck do you want, Dar?" he asked locking eyes with him. His former boss had that predatory look in his eyes Peter knew too well. He had hoped to never see it again when he had left the Agency for good, much less in relation to his wife.
Adal smiled. "I knew you'd be reasonable, Peter. Carrie working part-time behind a desk at Langley. That's all. If she agrees, nothing would come to light, we'll respect our exit agreement…" he slowly explained.
"Respect our exit agreement? She's out! Has been for years! Fuck you Dar, that's exactly what you aren't doing now…" Quinn retorted, placing his hands on the edge of the table and tightening his grip on it until his knuckles turned white.
Dar slightly raised his right eyebrow. "Leave it or take it. Peter. In a matter regarding Homeland Security we have to resort to all possibilities to …"
Quinn snorted, his fingers still gripping the table to prevent him from doing something he might regret later . "Homeland Security…. How can you be so fucking cinic, Dar?"
"Excuse me?" Dar frowned and feigned to be offended.
Quinn sighed. "You were in Haqqani's car that day in Islamabad…" It was not the first time that that particular incident was brought up in the presence of Dar. Amongst the countless offenses and betrayals committed by Adal that Quinn had regretfully witnessed or heard of over the years, this was the most outrageous by far.
Dar sighed. He was starting to get tired of explaining the same episode to Mr and Mrs Quinn over and and over again. "I already told your wife, and you Peter, several times if memory serves… We came to an agreement to take his name off a 'kill list' for a promise not to harbor agents in Afghanistan…"
"Come on, Dar… You make a deal with that SOB you dishonor every officer, every soldier at the embassy who died at his hands… You weren't there..." Quinn angrily muttered, finally pushing himself off the conference table.
"That was always your problem, Peter. You're a great soldier, but you always failed to see the big picture… "
Quinn laughed. "The big picture? If that means fucking betraying everything I believe in you're damn right… Not even you believe all that shit about the big picture…" He hesitated for a moment, secretly laughing at the irony of Dar coming to him to threat Carrie when she was already willing to aid them. "So much for the big picture, Dar," he thought to himself. Adal had a lot of ways to try and get to her without knowing that she was already thinking of being on board on her own volition. "I'd better keep that piece of information to myself."
Completely oblivious to Quinn's current thoughts, Dar smirked and took his coat from a nearby chair. "Peter, we expect Carrie to be tomorrow at Langley at 8 am. You know what'll happen if she's not there, I've warned you…"
"Tomorrow? She's got a job, Dar, she can't leave on such short notice…" Quinn complained, not realising that he had automatically assumed that she would be joining them.
"A shitty job, from what I've heard… Tomorrow 8 am. Don't you dare come looking for help if she doesn't show up…" Dar Adal replied, waving his hand as he exited the conference room, leaving a desolated Peter behind him.
Quinn leant on the table again, keeping his glare on the open door. "Bastard," he murmured, wondering if there was any possible way to end all this and go to their lives the way they were only two days ago.
As he walked back to his office, he decided to take the day off and meet Carrie at her school. If they wanted her to be in Langley the following day he had not much time to update her with the last developments, that had come in the form of threats by Dar. But when he started his car and drove out the parking lot of the company onto the main road, it hit him. She would be doing exactly what he did not want her to do. He had been so worried to try and protect Carrie from those threats that he had overlooked the fact that by doing so she would be working for the CIA again, and the life they had worked so hard to build together would be soon gone. Both Saul and Dar had insisted that it would only be a desk job, but all of them were well aware that was never true in the Agency. The 'part-time' tag was not, either. "A part-time job behind a desk, my ass," Peter thought as he suddenly pulled over onto the curb, overwhelmed by the weight of the implications of what Dar had just conveyed.
It was no news to him that Carrie's past in the CIA held a few dark episodes. So did his. In his case it was more than a few, and quite ugly. He had been confident that once they were out of that life it would never hit back publicly. Luckily for them, most of their missions were classified and the exit agreement guaranteed their current status. The nightmares, guilt and remorse they regularly suffered from were still there, and they had somehow learnt to live with them knowing that they were in their lives to stay no matter what they did. But they had thought they were completely shielded from the public eye.
Quinn loosened his tie and rolled down the window. He felt the urge for the fresh morning breeze as he thought how to approach Carrie on all this. Once she knew about Dar's visit she had two options: give in to the CIA menace and work for them, as she had apparently been prone to do that morning, or turn a deaf ear to those threats and go on with her life.
But Peter was not naive enough to think that once Carrie knew about the threats she would continue with her life as though nothing had happened. If Saul Berenson's offer had already triggered her desire to help hunt down Haqqani and thus prevent a terrorist attack on American soil, he was positive that the mere possibility of reliving publicly some of her past assignments with the CIA would not leave her unscathed. So whatever path she chose, it could have consequences for her health.
What Quinn thought to be a crazy idea at first rushed his mind as he nervously ran his hand through his hair. Maybe there was a way to minimize the impact of all this by hiding the threats from Carrie. He gulped and fixed his gaze on the windshield as he considered the idea. It might not be crazy after all. Carrie had already shown her willingness to collaborate with the Agency in order to track down Haqqani, and that morning he had told her that they would discuss it later in order to avoid a fight, because he did not want her to do it for a lot of reasons. He still did not, but the situation had only escalated from that morning. At this point should he have to choose, he would rather see her working in Langley than dealing with the aftermath of the declassification of secret documents regarding her past actions in the CIA.
"Yeah, yeah… She doesn't have to know. I'll just tell her that I support her decision, and then keep a close eye on her as soon as she starts working for them. I can do that… anything to protect her as much as I can…" he thought as he checked his rear-view mirror and drove onto the road again. Quinn spent most of the drive to Carrie's school doing his best to silence the small voice in his mind that kept insisting on the fact that his wife would never forgive him if she came to know that he had lied to her, both by keeping her in the dark about the CIA manoeuvres to get her on board again and by pretending that he supported her on her life-altering decision.