A/N: This chapter zooms forward to a month in time. So, by now Sasha has been working in Section D for a little while, though he's still not completely settled in.
And as Antonia Caenis predicted in an earlier review, there is some trouble in paradise brewing right about now...
Chapter Five
"Come on, Emma, we're gonna be late," Sasha called out through the bathroom door.
To be fair to Emma, she had kept her promise for a while, but a month into Sasha's new job and they found themselves right back where they had started in regard to the morning routine.
"I'm coming," Emma replied as she leaned against the wall and took some deep breaths. She wasn't holding them up by rubbing in hand cream this time; she was in fact ready, ready in that she was clean, fed and made-up. However, she had suddenly been struck by an overwhelming wave of nausea, and had thought it best that she remained in the bathroom until it passed. Except it didn't; it was only getting worse.
"We need to leave now, Emma," Sasha expressed.
"I know, I'll be out in a minute, wait in the car for me," she replied, barely able to steady herself against the sink.
"Ok," he huffed, clearly irritated.
She waited until she could no longer hear his footsteps, before dropping to her knees beside the toilet and throwing up the breakfast that she had so recently consumed. Although the experience was not pleasant of course, Emma was relieved that after it was all over, as she did feel much better for it. And so she proceeded to quickly brush her teeth and tidy herself up before rushing out to the car to join a moody looking Sasha.
"You took your time," he said through gritted teeth as he fired up the engine.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, we should still make though," Emma apologised.
"No we won't," Sasha told her curtly. "We're going to miss the beginning of the briefing."
"Oh well, I'm sure someone will bring us up to speed," Emma tried, desperately trying to diffuse the situation before it turned into an argument.
"Harry won't be impressed," Sasha said, throwing a glare at Emma as he turned a corner.
"Well, he rarely is," Emma told him with a slight chuckle.
"Don't joke about it; I've explained to you why I don't want to let him down. I could really do with some support from you right now," Sasha reasoned, whilst weaving his way through the morning traffic in London.
"Sasha!" Emma cried, hurt from his words. "I have been supporting you, I still am. We haven't been late once for the past month, until…"
"This morning," Sasha finished the sentence for her, "when you decided to stop bothering to make the effort to be on time anymore."
"No, it wasn't like that at all. If you must know, I wasn't feeling very well, so just give me a break would you," Emma explained, her voice wavering and tears pricking her eyes.
"Well, you look alright to me," Sasha replied sulkily as he drove into the nearest parking space at work.
"For Christ's Sake," Emma muttered in response, as she fought back the tears; no way was she going to start crying, especially over such an insignificant disagreement. She didn't even know why she was getting so emotional about it anyway.
The couple both slammed their respective doors shut after getting out of the car, then proceeded to walk into Thames House in complete silence.
When they entered the boardroom to eventually join the rest of the section, the tension between the pair was glaringly obvious to everyone, except Harry of course.
"You're…" he started.
"Late," Emma continued for him, "yes, we're fully aware of that."
"Well if you are so time-conscious then perhaps you wouldn't mind explaining to me why you've chosen to walk into a briefing that is almost finished," Harry shot back.
Before the latecomers could provide an excuse though, Ruth cut in: "Leave it, Harry; at least they are here now."
If anyone else in the room had said that, he would have undoubtedly launched a seething tirade at them, but as it was Ruth, Harry simply nodded and pursed his lips before resuming the meeting.
"Anyway, as I was saying, the decrypted email you see on the screen does suggest that Emmett Granger was in fact turned during his captivity in Afghanistan and is now passing official intelligence back to his former imprisoners."
The rest of the meeting was mostly a blur for Emma. She tried to concentrate but all she could think about was the spat between her and Sasha. She was angry for letting it get to her so much, which just stressed her out all the more. She couldn't take anything in that Harry was saying; she just kept going over what had happened earlier. 'It wasn't fair', she thought. 'Why was he being so unfair?'
"EMMA!" Harry suddenly cut into her thoughts.
"Sorry, what?" she finally brought her attention back to the briefing.
"Give me strength! Have you even been listening to me at all?" Harry questioned.
"Of course," Emma lied, the last thing she needed right now was another berating from her boss.
"So…" Harry prompted, though Emma remained silent. He sighed, and repeated his question: "Will you be alright to take charge of surveillance from this end this morning?"
"Yes, definitely," Emma confirmed, though she was not entirely certain who or what she would be spying on exactly.
"Right, good," Harry responded, with wide eyes. "Dimitri and Sasha, you'll be heading down to take a look round Granger's flat."
They nodded.
"Well, that's all. You better get to work, and try not to mess this one up; I'd really rather not start the week by having to tell the Home Secretary that we've let a British POW run riot on his home soil," Harry warned, directing his eye contact mainly at Emma, she noted.
Emma walked over to her desk and watched as Sasha and Dimitri left the office through the pods. Once they were gone, Erin came over and perched on the table in front of her.
"Hey, are you okay? Things seemed a little unsettled between you and Sasha back there," Erin asked, and Emma could tell that she was genuinely concerned.
"Oh, we had a bit of a row this morning. It was nothing serious; he was just annoyed at me for making us late. He gets really tetchy because he's so desperate to impress Harry and doesn't want to make a bad impression on him. Of course, I didn't set out to make us late on purpose; I just didn't feel very well," Emma explained, almost welling up again in frustration as she realised just how petty their fight was.
"And I take it he wasn't very sympathetic," Erin said.
"Hmmm," Emma hummed in agreement. "He thought I was making it up. Though why he thinks I'd purposely set out to embarrass him and then lie about it I don't know."
Erin detected the slight crack in Emma's voice, so quickly interjected: "Don't worry about it, sweetie. By the end of the day he'll have realised what a dick he's been and immediately come grovelling."
"Do you think?"
"I can almost guarantee it. He's obviously stressed out still by this new job, and he's taking it out on you. He shouldn't be though, and he'll see that soon enough. So try not to let it worry you too much," Erin comforted Emma.
"I'll try. Thanks honey," Emma said, looking up at Erin with a smile.
"No problem. Anyway, are you feeling better now?"
"Yes, much better. It came on quite suddenly, and has passed much in the same way," Emma told her.
"What was wrong?" Erin asked.
"Oh, just a bit of nausea," Emma revealed vaguely.
"PMT?"
"Something like that," Emma replied. "Anyway, would you mind telling me who I'm supposed to actually be putting surveillance on here, because as you probably gathered, I wasn't really all there in that meeting?"
"Do you want a lift home, Emma?" Erin asked as she wrapped her scarf round her neck.
"No, thanks, I'll wait for Sasha to get back," Emma replied.
"He won't be coming back here though, you know," Tariq interjected.
"How come?" Emma queried.
"Well, he's going out to the pub with the boys?" Tariq explained.
Emma frowned, "the boys?"
"Yeah, Dimitri, and some of the guys from Section C too; he is on his way there now, and after I've finished encrypting these files I'm going to join them. I thought you knew," Tariq said sheepishly.
"No, when did you all plan this?" Emma asked.
"Sasha only texted me about it this afternoon," he replied.
Emma looked at her phone, and saw that she had received no message from Sasha herself.
"And none of us girls are allowed to come along and join in on the fun?" Erin added.
"Afraid not, lads only tonight," Tariq told her, grinning. Having taken Harry's advice, over the past few weeks he had taken time to get to know Sasha and was able to gain his trust, so much so he was beginning to see him as a good friend.
"Right well, I suppose I better take you up on that offer of a lift then, if that's alright," Emma said to Erin.
"No problem," Erin replied, handing Emma her coat.
Emma was quiet on the journey home, quite obviously hurt by the fact that Sasha hadn't bothered to tell her he was going out.
"Just because it's taking him a little longer than expected, it doesn't mean that he won't realise how stupid he's being. It will dawn on him eventually, I promise," Erin attempted to cheer her friend up.
Emma nodded, but gave no audible reply; clearly it was going to take a little more to lift her spirits.
"Hey, you know what, how about we have our own girls' night?" Erin suggested.
Emma perked up a little, "what?"
"If the boys are out having fun, why don't we have a little fun of our own? Rosie is with her Dad tonight, so I've got a free house. We'll open a bottle of wine, watch some crap on TV, and bitch about men into the early hours. How does that sound?"
"Sounds like just what I need," Emma said, smiling.
"Great," Erin returned a grin in Emma's direction.
"And I don't think I'll bother telling Sasha where I am, see how he likes it!"
"I've only got red, is that alright?" Erin asked as she handed Emma a glass of Trattoria Verdi Montepulciano.
"That's fine," Emma said, as she accepted the drink, though when she went to take a sip, she was hit suddenly by the strong aromas from the liquid. The scent was not necessarily unpleasant, just overpowering, in a way that made Emma want to almost gag. "Actually, Erin, I think I will pass on the wine, if you don't mind. I'm feeling a bit sick again, and I don't really think alcohol will help matters."
"Oh, ok," Erin said as she took the glass back from Emma.
"Sorry," Emma apologised.
"Oh, no worries; all the more for me," Erin commented, chuckling. "Are you going to be ok?"
"Yes, I'm sure it'll pass again soon."
"Ok, but if it doesn't, lucky for you, as a mother, I'm good with sick!"
"I'll bear that in mind!" Emma joked along, though she was slightly worried that she may in fact be forced to call Erin's bluff should there be a repeat of that morning's incident!
The remainder of the evening turned out to be most enjoyable for Emma; Erin did a stellar job of cheering her up, mainly by distracting her from the day's events, and what's more, it was, thankfully, sick-free. Emma felt positively revitalised by the time she was eventually on her way back to her flat. Whilst in the back of the cab, she checked her phone and found she had in fact received a message from Sasha about an hour earlier.
Where are you?
There was no point replying now. She paid the driver and hurried into her building to quickly escape the cold. When she did let herself in she found Sasha sprawled across the bed, sound asleep. 'He can't have been too worried about me then' Emma mumbled as she proceeded to get ready for bed herself.
A/N: So the happy couple are no longer so happy! You'll have to wait until the next chapter to see if a reconciliation is on the cards or not.
Drop me a review to let me know what you thought, if you'd be so kind! :)