A/N: Have you ever heard of The Lemonade Stand? If you've been involved in the fandom more than a month, I'm sure you have. Well, those lovely ladies included On The Line in their Monday fic rec this week. Thanks so much, TLS, especially Cappricorn75.
Welcome, new readers! I'm glad you're here!
The apartment was dark when she got there. Bella opened a beer and ate a slice of cold pizza standing at the counter. Communication hadn't been clear or consistent since the beginning, but she felt she was well within her rights to expect a little more transparency by now. They had been working together almost a week and time was running out. The suit and shoes were gone from her closet and there was no evidence that her 'roommate' had ever been there at all. Her phone had been silent all day and when she checked her e-mail the only messages she saw were some office-wide announcements. There was nothing from Agent Masen.
At 10:30 she gave up on him returning that night, got ready for bed and turned out the light.
Sunday began at 5:45 with her alarm blaring in her ear. She smacked the 'off' button in a panic, sat up and looked around frantically. Masen was standing near the window, dressed for running and drinking nonchalantly from a glass of water.
Feeling completely pissed off, Bella threw on her own running clothes, hooked her keys into the drawstring of her shorts and left the apartment without sparing him a second glance. On the sidewalk she checked her watch. Three miles at an 8:05 pace would bring her back to the same spot in 24 minutes and 15 seconds. She wasn't a human calculator like Agent Masen, but she had enough of a sense of direction to follow their previous route and she knew what it felt like to run an 8:10 mile time. In a word, it sucked. So, if she pushed herself until she felt like vomiting instead of just collapsing, she should be right on the money with the faster time. Bella set off running without looking back. Before she even hit the first intersection, Masen fell into step beside her. Neither one said a word.
She didn't check her watch again until the apartment came back into view near the end of their circuit. They were a little behind the pace so she kicked it up a notch, breathing hard but still managing to hold her form. Masen kept pace barely a half-step behind her. Bella normally stretched before going inside but she needed to pee desperately so she continued running right up the steps.
When she stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later, Masen was waiting in the center of her apartment with his hands on his hips. She matched his pose. The air between them was heavy with tension.
"Are you angry at me?" he finally asked.
"Should I be?"
His eyes narrowed slightly and he appeared to be seriously considering her question. "No."
"Well, too bad. I am. I don't expect you to tell me everything. I know you're juggling a thousand details that are miles beyond my comprehension or experience, but I fail to see how me being constantly left in the dark is going to help us work together."
Her voice was raised and she was talking too fast. Bella tried to contain her emotions, but her constant confusion had been eating away at her confidence since the very beginning. Hearing Masen dismiss her anger out of hand cut deep. She didn't know why it hurt, but it did, and she would be damned if she was going to cry. Her emotions rarely simmered so close beneath her skin, but that morning was just one thing too many. He had even set her alarm for her! Maybe he had intended it to be helpful, but instead it felt invasive. She was sacrificing a lot on this mission. It didn't seem like too much to ask for him to keep his hands off her stuff.
"Not knowing everything makes you angry?" His words were slow and cautious.
"Well, no. That's not what I said. I don't like being kept in the dark. I don't need to know everything. Just, you know, don't surprise me."
"But you surprise me." He rocked back on his heels and forward again.
"I what?"
"You're very difficult to read. You surprise me all the time."
"I'm not difficult to read. I'm an open book. And besides, I'm not the one who keeps disappearing and reappearing like a magician's fucking rabbit!"
"So this is about me being gone yesterday?"
"God, just stop it! Why do you have to be such a man?!" Bella slammed her hand against the countertop out of frustration.
Seconds later there was a pounding on the wall and she sheepishly called out an apology to her neighbor. She hadn't realized she was yelling at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. So much for being a stealthy undercover operative.
"We need to talk," Masen said with a half smile.
"Ugh. Fine. Yeah," she agreed in an exasperated tone.
Bella sat on the floor and leaned forward to touch her toes for a few seconds before sitting back up and staring at Masen. The swelling on his jaw had gone down a bit, but it had spread into a mottled reddish purple bruise. He hadn't shaved in a day and a half. The bristles around his mouth and jaw, slightly lighter than his reddish-brown hair, gave him a rough and formidable look. When he smiled as he was then, it gave him the appearance of a man up to no good, like a pirate, only dangerously attractive.
Masen lowered himself to the floor a few feet away and mirrored her pose. "I think we need to rewind a bit."
"That might be good."
"I apologize for not telling you about yesterday's appointments earlier. Jacob didn't confirm with me until early Saturday morning."
"Further."
"Wait, further? The business man get-up?" He looked confused.
"Further."
"The frying pan?"
"You're awfully dense," she said through gritted teeth.
"Thank you. . . I think. . ."
"I'm talking about the very beginning. Meeting with Mahardy on Monday. After he dismissed me you two got all cozy in his office and talked about who knows what without me. Then, when you finally chose to find me and talk to me, you jumped straight into psycho rapist mode without any warning. What, was that a test or something?"
Masen let out his breath with a whoosh then cocked his head to one side and evaluated her for a few seconds before responding. "Mahardy wanted to apologize for saddling me with a new recruit. His top five picks were unavailable for one reason or another. Pregnant, too old for the part, on other assignments, recovering from an appendectomy. You were his Hail Mary pass."
The blood drained from Bella's face and she swallowed against a wave of nausea. Not even her boss thought she could do this. His line about being 'the right agent for the job' was just some leadership bullshit he was using to manipulate her.
Masen continued speaking after a brief pause, "Fortunately I learned not to trust Mahardy's instincts about anything years ago. I liked you. You struck me as being a bit naive and idealistic, but tough and teachable. Both good things. You have an incredibly visual imagination. I could tell that just by watching your eyes as you read Mahardy's mission file. You're smart and focused. You immediately got to work learning the plan and improving upon it. The scene in the conference room was a test. I needed to know what kind of range of emotion I could get out of you. We're going to be selling a pretty elaborate story to people who have seen it all. They need to believe everything we feed them, which means we're both going to be tapping into some very dark emotions. You showed me that you could do that."
Bella had been chewing on her lower lip as he spoke, but when he finished she relaxed a little and continued stretching out her legs. "And all this shady undercover stuff you've been up to?"
"You were right when you said I'm juggling a thousand details. An operation of this scope should never be thrown together with so little preparation. We're not Hollywood action heroes. This shit is real. We can't wing it and trust the special effects crew to gloss over the holes in the plot. Once we go in, it's just you and me until we have everything we need to blow the roof off this group. That means we need to identify the man at the top. There is always a kingpin. It's our job to find him. As for the timeline, the original plan had Edward Cullen leaving Seattle in late July. Unfortunately, there have been a few untimely deaths. Nothing to do with us, I promise. But in this game the mortality rate is high, so I can't say I'm that surprised. If Edward Cullen was real and those individuals were his true contacts and associates, he would be spooked and getting the hell out of Seattle as fast as possible. One death, no big surprise. But two? That smells like more than coincidence. That's a change in the tide. He would start breaking camp immediately. Anyway, even the two weeks Mahardy gave us is a stretch. That's why we're flying up there tomorrow."
Bella's eyes widened. "Tomorrow?"
"Yeah. But don't worry. You don't have to pack anything. You're not bringing any of this with you. Well, maybe just a token bag for authenticity."
"Tomorrow," she said again, reeling from the latest revelation.
"We have some loose ends to tie up there and then it takes five days to reach Florida."
"I thought we were flying there."
"How could he take her on a plane? Marie doesn't have any identification and his number one forger was found face down in Puget Sound a week and a half ago. Blood Alcohol Content point two four. He was a teetotaler. You do the math." He grinned at her and she quelled the urge to kick him.
"Wow. Okay. Tomorrow. . ." She looked around her tiny apartment and then back at her partner. It was a shock, but she felt okay with it. They would have the entire trip across the States to train and strategize together. However, there was still one thing eating at her. "I appreciate you telling me all that. I would be lying if I said it wasn't reassuring and comforting to know you think I can do the job. But I need you to know I'm more than just a tool."
"And that is where you're wrong, Agent Swan. We're both tools. Nothing more. The sooner you learn that fact, the better." His tone, while still playful, was backed with steel.
"If we're just tools in this big game and you and SAC Mahardy agree I'm the best you have, then why was I getting a weird vibe from Agent Filipovna on Friday morning? Does she have a problem with me?"
"You're too damn perceptive." He shot a crooked grin her way. "Tanya has never worked in the field, but she's been behind the scenes on a hundred different missions. She's seen agents succeed against the odds and others fail on easy assignments. Over the years, she's worked with lone operatives, partners like us and entire teams. With that kind of experience and perspective, you can imagine that her observations of the agents themselves are as valuable as the intel she prepares for them. Her opinion is that you need to keep your head in the game at all times. Never drop your guard."
"And she thinks I've dropped my guard? Or that you've dropped your guard with me? I don't get it. We're partners. We need to be able to work well together."
"You're right. We're partners. We work together."
"Now you're being intentionally obtuse. Sometimes you really piss me off."
"Would it help if I let you hit me?"
"Ugh," she groaned. "You already did. If anything, that only made it worse."
Masen chuckled and lay down with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. "So we're good then?"
"Yeah, we're good. . . partner." She giggled a little imagining Agent Masen in a ten-gallon hat. He did kind of remind her of a Louis L'Amour character sometimes. . . Hard-bitten, a bit rough and utterly lethal.
A/N: I hope that conversation answered some of the questions that have been swimming around the reviews these last couple weeks. :)