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Date Posted: Tuesday, May 30, 01:55:22pm
Author: Mary
Subject: Tea Time
In reply to: JayBee and Nell 's message, "Friday Challenge: May 26, 2006" on Friday, May 26, 03:23:36pm

Tea Time


Mick sat on the stool and watched as Nikita made tea. How could he refuse her offer to come in? She hadn‘t done that before. When he walked into the apartment he noticed that it was cold, the French doors were open and a single glass of wine sat on the counter.

“Do you mind if I close the doors? It’s a bit cold in here.”

Nikita turned, leaving the tea to look at Mick, “It is. Sorry.”

He took that as permission and left the stool to close the door. He turned around and Nikita had the tea on a tray steeping, as she sat on the sofa and asked, “So you were part of the Gremaldi mission?”

“You knew about it?”

“I heard that we were going into Phase two right before I left Section.”

“Did you know the profile?”

“No. I just had the summary on my panel.”

Mick sighed and Nikita poured the tea.

“It was supposed to be a simple in and out. I knew Gremaldi from a party last year, quite a drinker the bloke is. My job was to keep him busy in the hotel lounge while they searched his room for some disk or something of the sort. This bird was in the bar, she was young, flirting with him. He asked her to go with him, for dinner. I watched as the car drove away.”

“Mick she made a choice to go with him.”

“No love. I could have stopped her. I would have. If they had just told me…”

“It doesn’t work that way Mick, not Section,” her voice cracked a bit.

He looked at her and noticed the sadness in her eyes, the tears not far from falling.

“You want to talk about it?”

Nikita was surprised at the kindness in his voice. Usually he was so annoying that she sometimes forgot that he wasn’t completely tainted by Section. “The last mission has been really bad.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Mick waiting for her to continue.

Nikita appreciated that he didn’t push her. “There was a family involved. The little boy was almost four, the mother an innocent. They are the people we are supposed to protect.”

“Is the mother and the boy…?” Mick knew he had said the wrong thing instantly when her anger flashed through her eyes.

“God, Mick. No! They are fine. I mean…” she went to stand by the now closed french doors to look over the city. She was trying to compose herself, trying to hold back the tears, but she felt the stinging and the raw burning in her throat.

Keeping her back to him she continued, “They are physically fine, the mother and boy. But emotionally their world has been destroyed. They didn’t deserve this, they had no idea. All I can see is Adam’s eyes and it is heartbreaking.”

“Adam?”

“The little boy, a boy who will never know his father now.”

“The father was the target?”

Nikita sighed and closed her eyes. She wondered how she was going to answer his question. Why had she ever even started this conversation with Mick? She was exhausted, she knew that, felt it in her bones. But she was miserable, and she had no idea how to help Michael. She had no idea who else in the world she could talk to right now. She did know that Michael would need her, and probably soon, she had to be able to face him, support him.

“No. The father was not the target. The father was Michael.”

“What? Michael? Your Michael?”

“Mick, he is not ‘my Michael’. Never has been.”

“Gumdrop, you’re not making any sense, why don’t you tell me about this from the beginning?”

She laid her head on the back of the sofa and began, “Mick you could get in a lot of trouble if you repeat any of this, ever. I personally will break every bone in your body. Are we clear?”

“Perfectly. These lips are sealed.”

“As part of a mission started years ago Michael married the daughter of an elusive terrorist, Salla Vacek.”

Mick was shaking his head as he tried to comprehend everything that he was hearing, “Whoa, hold on now. Michael is married? And there’s a kid?”

“Yes, Mick…” Her tone showed the fatigue that she was feeling and the pain.

“Oh.” Mick hesitated as he thought about how hard this must have been for her to find out.

When she didn’t continue after an uncomfortable pause he tried a different route to get her talking again, “Salla Vacek. Now, him I have heard of, impossible to get to though.”

“Not for Section. They found his one weakness, and used it, just like they always do.”

“And that was?”

“His daughter. Michael married her and they had a child to secure his cover. They poisoned the daughter to flush Vacek out of hiding. Then they had to end the scenario, so they made it look like both Vacek and Michael had been killed.”

“So this daughter – she and her son think Michael is dead?”

“Yes, and her name is Elena.”

“How did you get involved in this?”

“They used me to get close to Elena, talk to her about her father, make her want to get in contact with him. I actually moved in with them.”

“With the family? Are you insane?”

“Section doesn’t give us many choices Mick.”

“No, I don’t suppose they do.”

On that rather obvious point there was a rather long pause as they both sat in silence lost to their own thoughts. Mick had been wondering if she was the right one, he just hadn’t realized how quickly that question would be answered. To Nikita her survival was very important, and she knew to survive emotionally she had to put boundaries around what she would and would not do. But Michael had no such boundaries, Section had consumed those long ago. Mick knew that eventually Nikita would get to Michael enough that he would redefine those limits.

“So where is Michael now?”

“I don’t know,” she hated that the tears started to surface again. She had hunted for him after the debrief; checked with Walter, Birkoff and even Madeline to try to find out where he might have gone. She hated risking another entry in the Nikita psyche file, but she had been quite desperate.

“Well bloody hell, the man just lost his family, shouldn’t someone know where he is?”

“Mick, do not yell at me! You know how Michael is. He went off by himself. There wasn’t anything that I could do.”

“Sorry, love. Don’t go all spygirl and hurt Mick or anything.”

Nikita actually smiled at that. She couldn’t help it, the man was positively incorrigible.

“I won’t hurt you this time Mick,” she said her voice, like the intangible weight on her soul, just a little lighter because of the unlikely conversation with her exasperating neighbor.

Mick knew not to push his luck, “Well I think I should call it a night. You look tired and I’m sure that you need your beauty sleep. Thanks for the tea love.”

Nikita caught his arm before he had opened the door, “Thank you Mick. This really helped.” The sincerity of her words was evident in her tired eyes.

“My pleasure. You know ol’ Mick, you can bend my ear any time, or anything else for that matter.”

She yanked open the door and motioned for him to leave, “You don’t ever really change do you Mick?”

“Oh, now doll face you wouldn’t want me to change. The birds love me just as I am. You’ll see - I’ll grow on you.”

“I highly doubt that. Get out Mick.”

“Ok, I can see you’re tired. Time for Mick to go. Maybe we could have breakfast…”

Nikita slammed the door behind him and Mick turned away from her security camera and let out a small smile. Yes, she was the one, it would just take time.

Mary

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