Disclaimer: As you'd expect: I own nothing, which is a crying shame.
A/N: Hey guys. Thank you all for the reviews, the favorites and the story alerts. Last chapter I got my 100th review milestone! Thank you SO MUCH, I wouldn't have gone this far with this story if it wasn't for you ! It meant the world to me :)
Sorry it took me this long to post the new chapter, but I've been a little busy. Anyway, here it is now, and I hope you like it.
At the sight of any grammar mistakes, you know what to do.
Enjoy!
The beach house was enveloped in a deep silence as the two utterly weary agents stood in the living room after long couple of days.
Birkhoff was nowhere to be seen and Alex was still on her way back from Division, which left Michael and Nikita completely alone in the large room.
Nikita sat on the couch and exhaled loudly, feeling drained. Not only was she feeling exhausted but she couldn't take Percy's words out of her head. She knew she was just unnecessarily overthinking things, but she just couldn't help herself, it was stronger than her.
"You should rest" Michael's voice echoed in the empty room, making it sound more intense than he'd hoped "You look tired"
Using the very last ounce of sense of humor she had left, Nikita forced a smirk.
"Well, thank you. You look charming as usual" she humorlessly laughed "I'm waiting for Alex. I wanna be sure she's okay"
Michael nodded his understanding "Goodnight then"
"Goodnight" she murmured, her voice only above a whisper.
Nikita sat alone in the living room for what seemed like hours, her thoughts only on Daniel.
Daniel - she sighed, feeling her throat tightening and tears forming in her eyes.
It had been so long since the last time she'd thought about him it made her feel terribly guilty. She knew deep down she'd never forget him, but she felt anguished at how easy was not thinking about him.
She was terrified at the idea of forgetting the only man that had ever loved her unconditionally. It hurt to think about him, yes. But it was no reason to forget him.
"Do you two talk much about Daniel? It must be a little awkward since you knew about the kill order and didn't warned her"
Percy's voice echoed in her mind, making her stomach turn into a knot.
She did realize that they often talked about Elizabeth and Haley; and then later on about Cassandra and Max; but they never actually talked about Daniel.
It was not like Michael didn't allowed her to talk about him, it was just she rarely felt comfortable to talk about Daniel with Michael.
Whether it was because she was just apprehensive about it or because the mood often shifted when she mentioned the subject, she couldn't quite tell.
The only few times she felt like she needed to share a thought or a memory about him, Michael would find a way of turning the subject for him and Elizabeth.
Now, with Percy's words constantly floating in her mind, she wondered if he did that on purpose.
No - she thought to herself - Owen told the truth, Michael didn't knew about the kill order.
Or did he?
The idea, as absurd as it was, haunted her. The possibility that Michael might actually have known about Daniel's kill order and had deliberately not warned her just made her nauseous.
She didn't want to believe Michael would do such thing.
Not to her, not at the expense of an innocent life. Not her Daniel's life.
Nikita trusted Michael with all she had, but she couldn't deny that deep down, a little part of her trust was starting to falter.
She pushed her thoughts aside and wiped her tears away as she heard Alex coming in.
"Nikita?" the young girl asked, looking at her watch "Its 4am, how are you even awake after all that was going on?"
Nikita smiled at her protégé's concern for her well-being.
"Just wanted to make sure you were okay. Birkhoff told me about your little encounter with Roan"
"I'm okay, really. But that was a close one"
Nikita tenderly brushed Alex's hair "I'm just glad you're okay"
Alex smiled warmly at Nikita's genuine feeling towards her.
"I'm glad we're all safe…for now at least" she said with a sigh.
"Yeah, for now" Nikita agreed, worry darkening her features.
"Are you coming up?" Alex asked, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and heading towards the stairs.
"In a minute" she nodded.
Alex furrowed her brows, sensing that something was bothering Nikita.
"Is everything alright?" she asked, turning back to look into her sensei's eyes.
"I'm fine" Nikita guaranteed "Just tired" she said lamely
Alex arched an eyebrow, not fooled.
"Liar" she said knowingly.
Nikita let out a loud sigh, closing her eyes in distress.
"Fine you don't need to tell me" the young girl conceded, not wanting to add to Nikita's distress "But if you need to talk…you know where I'll be"
Nikita gave her a thankful smile and watched the girl disappear up stairs before grabbing a bottle of wine.
Michael rolled in his bed again, knowing there was no way in the world he would get some sleep that night, no matter how weary he was after the long couple of days he'd had.
He squeezed his eyes shut trying to empty his mind, but it was useless; his head was still spinning with mental pictures of Nikita and Owen together.
He tried not to think about it, but every time his mind cleared for a few seconds, soon Percy's voice invaded his thoughts.
"Does Michael know the truth about you and Owen?"
He groaned, burying his face into the pillow. Michael knew it was stupid, but his mind couldn't help forming images of them together. They were from the most innocent ones; sipping veggie shakes, having dinner, going for a walk in the park; to the most disturbing ones where they were kissing and running their hands all over each other.
Frustrated at how his mind could form such vivid images, he got up the bed and went to the bathroom, splashing cold water on his face, desperately trying to control his thoughts.
He went downstairs on a quest for some hard liquor, and was surprised to see Nikita sitting on the couch, staring blankly at the dark empty room.
Michael knew she was deep in thought so he slowly approached her trying not to startle her, but failed miserably, causing her to almost throw her half-finished glass on wine at him.
"God, Michael. Don't sneak up on me like that" she chided, her heart still racing.
"I'm sorry" he immediately apologized "I wasn't sneaking up on you. I just didn't expected anybody else to be up at this hour"
Running a hand through her hair, she sighed "it's okay"
He gave her a questioning look "Why are you awake at this time in the morning, by the way?"
Nikita humorlessly chuckled, looking up at him "I could ask you the same thing"
He gave her a small smirk "Point taken" he said as he watched her finish her wine "Do you have any more of that?" he said looking at the empty glass.
"Right here" she said reaching for the bottle of wine on the table and waving it gently "help yourself"
Michael found himself a glass and after he poured some wine, he sat in the armchair by her left.
The duo remained quiet, neither mentioning the big fat elephant sitting in the room with them.
But they knew it. They knew exactly what was going on each other's minds.
Still, not a single word was spoken as neither of them was ready to face each other, whether their assumptions were valid or not.
Nikita knew Michael was having doubts about whether or not she'd been romantically involved with Owen, the same way Michael knew Nikita was silently torturing herself with the thought that maybe he did know about Daniel's kill order.
But again, nothing was said about it.
Their relationship was already in very thin ice, and they knew a discussion like this would only crack it. And they both also knew they couldn't afford to lose each other. They loved each other too much.
So the young couple just accepted the hand they were dealt, which for that night meant silence and wine.
A/N: So, that's it. I didn't say if Percy's accusations were true or not, because I really wanna know how they are going to deal with this on the show.
Just for the record, the part where I mention that Nikita and Michael didn't talk about Daniel, is because I had the impression since season 1 that they only portrait how Michael was affected by his family's death, and they kind of forget that Nikita also lost someone really dear to her, her only actual family (as he was her fiancée). So that was my way of interpreting this. Sorry if you thought that is was nonsense.
Anyway, thanks for reading and tell me what you think :)