Two Lonely Souls

Chapter 13

Isabella slept much longer than she had planned. By the time she woke up, she heard a noisy house full of men again. Colby had let her sleep even after they all came back from the busy day. God, she loved that man. She slid out of bed and showered quickly, redid her makeup, and slipped on a casual black sheath dress, leaving her legs and arms bare. She wore black flat sandals. She used her special scented lotion moisturizing her very exposed legs and arms, and wore no jewelry other than her engagement ring. She looked at herself in the mirror and felt beautiful for the first time in days. She was no longer cramping, and almost not bleeding anymore at all. She felt beautiful and healthy, happy, and more energetic than she had in days. She smiled and left her room to embrace her friends downstairs.

She was half way down the stairs before anyone noticed her, and once one did soon all eyes were on her as she finished her descent. Colby met her at the bottom of the stairs and lightly kissed her on the lips. "Hey, sleeping beauty. You look wonderful. How are you feeling?"

Isabella smiled softly at Colby. "Thanks for letting me sleep baby. I feel really good. Really good."

He took her by the hand and led her into the group. Ian was standing along the far wall, separate from the others and watching her and Granger.

Isabella smiled at Colby and Tommy, "Save me a seat. I need to go greet our latest arrival." She met Ian's eyes and held them as she wove her way around all the other bodies laying on the couch and sitting on the floor. Ian watched her like a predator watches prey but she was unafraid. He was a hunter, even a great hunter. He wanted her, but he would never hurt her. She finally made it to where he leaned against the wall and she stood in front of him.

"Welcome Ian. I'm glad you're here." Isabella ran her hands down his arms. He was leaning against his hands so she couldn't take his hands, but by the time her hands had made their way down his arms to where his hands would be, she amazingly was holding Ian's hands. She gave him a little smirk. "How have you been? I haven't seen you since Afghanistan."

"I'm good. I was surprised that you asked for me here."

"Of course I asked for you. We need you. You're the best. And this could be very bad if we miss."

"We never miss."

"No. That is why we need you, baby. Neither of us ever misses."

Ian smiled at her knowingly, whispering in her ear. "You just keep me on this really long leash don't you? You just keep me hoping. I can't get enough of you and you know it."

Isabella gave him a small smile and whispered in his ear, "You are the one who keeps yourself on the leash, not me. Hope is gone, baby. I'm going to be married. You need to get over me, others are." She pulled away from him and continued without releasing his hands, "I am glad you are here Ian. Welcome to our home. Has some one found you a room, showed you where to stow your stuff?"

"I am glad to be here. And yeah, I got a room, thanks. Bella, that must have been one hell of a scene in the mountains. Three kill shots in ten seconds from a mile away. They never knew what hit them. No wonder you are number 1 and a legend. I don't even think I could have made those shots."

She gave him a slight little happy laugh and led him towards the rest of the group. "I don't keep score Ian. And I'd be happy to have you been the one to spend countless nights freezing your ass off, sleeping whenever you can, eating whatever crap you can find from the ground in frozen Godforsaken mountain tundra. Oh wait, you did that too! But you didn't have Special Forces body guards with you to protect you, make sure you got fed, and didn't freeze to death. Your stint there is much more impressive. I think you are the bigger shooter here, Ian, and the bigger legend. There is no competition. Sit and play nicely with everyone." Isabella smiled at him as he took a seat next to one of the others as she went to join Colby.

Most of the men were really impressed with how she handled Ian, and handled was the right word for it. He was an egotist in the extreme, and constantly chafed at not being some fictional "No. 1" which he had self-identified Isabella as because of her kills in Afghanistan. He had killed more bad guys, traveling and tracking alone for months on end, and yet he gave more credit to what Isabella had accomplished. Plus his attraction to her was intense, and he had gone years avoiding her because of his discomfort with the intensity. Ian was a guy who had to be in control, and with Isabella he was definitely not. He had been uncomfortable since he had been here, waiting for her to 'arrive' and yet once here, she had graciously welcomed him into her home, and indirectly encouraged him to take the "No. 1" title for himself, both feeding his ego and releasing something she didn't want anyway.

Don had already brought Ian up to speed, so there was no need for time spent on that. Amita and Charlie had spent the latter part of the afternoon entering in all the "census" data from earlier in the day. They were ready to present their findings. Don nodded to Charlie to take the floor, which he did in his nervous twitchy way. Once he got into the flow of his math and how it helped them make decisions, he got more enthusiastic and confident. He was 1000 times more intelligent than anyone else in the room, but the others in the room had 1000 times more experience at everything. While Charlie had never really been arrogant, he had been truly humbled by his work with the FBI. He knew his role to play and gave the team what it needed.

"Based on the feedback we got back from today, including the immeasurable "spidey-sense" that some spoke of, we created the following neighborhood mapping. There are three houses that stand out as possible cell locations: House A, B, and C. All three houses were inhabited by no less than two Islamic males and no more than 4. There did not appear to be any women present, which fits the profile. While most teams had little to no trouble overcoming suspicion, especially using Arabic, these three houses refused entrance to the teams assigned to them."

Don spoke up, "Charlie, none of those factors would make any of these houses out to be cell locations. Is there anything more?"

"There was nothing else that caused any other houses than these three to stand out."

Colby spoke up, "That isn't enough to get a wiretapping warrant, even under the patriot act. Numbers of men present or the lack of women could mean nothing, it could mean they are gay, it could mean a couple is not married yet and the woman lives in another house. Refusing entrance to a census worker is meaningless. Probably 50% of the population does that."

Tommy argued back that it could be enough. "The situation clearly fit the outline of a cell location, we had threatening letters, and a dead Iman from that mosque. The right judge, I think we can get the warrant."

Isabella spoke between the two men. "Before we go to a judge, why don't we put some teams on the houses? Are there any empty houses on the block we could temporarily commandeer and use as a base to watch comings and goings. See if we see anything suspicious? I'm sorry Tommy, but if we found a judge that would grant a warrant based on what we have today, that scares me for the security of the constitution more than the fear of a cell operating there. We need more."

Colby and David looked at each other and then David started to talk. "Colby and I did this one time with some meth lab terrorists. We sat across the street in a vacant house, which there are plenty of in the area we are looking at, used directional mikes and got what we needed. Of course, we almost got our asses blown up too. But we have enough for six teams, 12 hour shifts using directional mikes and cameras. If we get one of these guys on the terrorist watch list or going anywhere unusual, we'll have enough for a warrant. We might have enough for more."

Isabella looked calmly at Colby. "Almost got your ass blown up? Uh, huh. Glad I now know that, I'll sleep better."

Colby smiled at her lecherously while he leaned to talk in her ear, "I'll make sure you sleep just fine, baby." She smiled secretly but did not respond to him or anyone else.

Don cleared his throat, while everyone else squirmed slightly. They had seen the exchange but were not sure what had been said. "So David, get the housing taken care of. Use one of the teams back at the office to take care of the rental. Do I need to assign teams or can you guys work it out? Tommy, you work your guys, I'll take mine. We'll put our lists together in an hour? Start getting set up first thing in the morning. I'll be sure we get some clunker cars to drive. Park in the back."

"This can only go for a day or so. The time frame is coming up."

"Charlie, Amita and I will work on decoding the passages. That didn't happen today because I've been sick, but I feel better and I'm on top of it. Assuming this isn't a misdirect, we may have a location tomorrow. It looks like Rosa is motioning that dinner is ready. After dinner, play your games and such, but be sure you get enough sleep."

Isabella heard Tommy explaining to Ian about the miscarriage and how sick she had been, but she looked better today than she had in days. She also heard Tommy let Ian know the she didn't want to talk about it. Everyone had soon taken their place at the table and started serving themselves. Isabelle enjoyed sitting at the table, eating little- her appetite still had not come back, and listening to the camaraderie. She loved seeing how the Ops guys who had initially been skeptical of the FBI's ability now apparently saw no lines between the two groups. And of course, Ian had easily been assimilated into the larger group because of his experience with the two groups. Dinner was winding down and they would join the sports channel TV watchers, pool game, or air hockey players. There weren't too many chess takers. Isabella leaned over to whisper in Colby's ear, "How long do you think you will play tonight baby?" Colby had been playing pool almost every night. He couldn't beat her, so it was nice when there was a group he at least had a shot at.

"Why? Did you have something else in mind?"

"I'm feeling really good, and there is hardly anything left at all going on, you know. So I was hoping…"

"You were 'hoping' what?" Colby's tone of voice was a little sarcastic and not at all what she was expecting. She kept her voice very quiet and her expression the same.

"If you think I'm going to beg, forget it. I have far too many choices to have to beg. Nor do I want you to beg. I want you to make love to me, like you did that one night where you couldn't get enough of me. Or not. If it bothers you so close to the end of the miscarriage, I understand. Or perhaps you would rather play with your friends. I'll be excusing myself now. You'll do what you'll do." She turned away from Colby and stood indicating her intention to retire for the evening. There was some grumbling about she never hung out with them in the little time they had. "I'm sorry guys. Perhaps tomorrow. I started out this afternoon feeling much better, and now find myself tired. I'm sorry it is taking me so long to recover, but better that I be 100% when the time comes, and for us to play later. I can hold you here as my hostages as long as I require it." She looked specifically at Tommy and smiled, then turned away and went upstairs.