| Subject: The Outside Operative 26 |
Author:
Nikita507
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Monday, August 26, 07:01:37pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "The Outside Operative 19+" on Saturday, August 03, 05:05:34pm
“You came in,” Michael dully spoke as he made it to the lobby and saw Birkoff standing there, a laptop bag across his stomach as if he was being protected from the sicknesses. The young man glanced over his shoulder and Michael saw Mick who waved. “Ah… motivation.”
“And reality,” Birkoff stated as he shrugged his shoulders. “Nikita saved my life… and she needs us.”
“Now that I’ve told all of you,” Michael dropped his head, now feeling guilty for not saying anything sooner. Maybe this all would be easier to handle.
“I would have thought it was a charade from Section,” Birkoff shook his head as he looked around and swallowed. “Ah… maybe we can get some coffee?”
“Walter called you,” Michael shoved his hands into his pockets as he started to head to the small coffee shop that was in the lobby, Birkoff was trotting beside him. “Actually, Walter texted me.”
Michael almost stopped as he looked at Birkoff. Birkoff shrugged his shoulders. “I taught him some new tricks since we got out.”
Before Michael could respond, he ordered them coffee and motioned Birkoff to take the booth back in the back of the coffee shop. Birkoff stopped to add cream and sugar into his coffee as Michael moved smoothly to the location that he desired.
Birkoff jumped into the conversation before he even sat down. “I just can’t believe all the things that Nikita did while she was out… I mean, Mick has been telling me about those things.”
“She was never given the chance to prove herself,” Michael folded his hands in front of him. Birkoff shook his head from side to side as he swallowed a too large of a gulp. “Nope… I got a theory on that… I’ve been thinking that Nikita would h have never been that good if she had come back in… she got good because she was doing it for a real reason… she was doing it for you.”
Michael watched as Birkoff took another sip and he lifted his head slightly as he leaned forward. “Nikita wasn’t doing it just for me…. There was Walter and you… a lot of others that she knew… didn’t belong there. That Section was wrong. It wasn’t just for me.”
Birkoff shrugged his shoulders as he shook off that statement. Michael might not want to admit it, but everyone else who knew could see it. “Still… it takes some of the mystic off of you.”
“Mystic?”
“Oh yeah,” Birkoff nodded his head up and down. “I mean… there were times that I couldn’t explain how you pulled a mission out of the ambers of complete disaster to not only be a success, but to save so much more… when others had already written off more… and how many times the tide just turned… and you appeared to be invisible… always on the top of the game even with chaos raining down all around you.”
Michael took a sip of his hot coffee as he didn’t even think of these things. During those times, he was always afraid that Nikita would be found.
“Hell, half of the operatives thought you were part vampire… the other thought you were some angel of hell or something… no one could explain things… but it was ok, because it was Michael,” Birkoff shrugged as he leaned back in his chair with a whistle. “I’d heard that Nikita saw Paul at the very end. Do you think he was able to start putting it together what was happening?”
“I haven’t had much chance to think about it,” Michael finally spoke as Birkoff paused long enough for Michael to respond. Michael cleared his throat. “I didn’t want her to do those things.”
Birkoff snorted. “Again… she had a reason to do them once you… well, I always had hoped that you would find Nikita interesting… although I know that there was a time that I was smitten with her… but I knew that I could see it that I was never a glimmer… more than a brother…”
“Who hasn’t been able to go see her yet,” Michael pointed out as he picked up the coffee and then set it down. “I think she might be tired of me.”
Birkoff snorted and took in some more coffee. “I got into the hospital… I’ll go up and see her now… But I heard that Adrian hasn’t been in either.”
Michael swallowed and looked at Birkoff. “How much to do you know about Adrian?”
“I had dinner with her and Mick last night,” Birkoff declared and Michael was stunned. “We got together at the hotel and have some pizza… well, it was gourmet pizza… I would have just taken Pizza Hut or Dominos… but this was fancy… crab and arugula stuff… I just wanted pepperoni.”
“But you lost the Jason accent quickly,” Michael retorted as he rubbed his head and rolled his shoulders back. “Look… I don’t know if today is the day to see Nikita. It has been a rough couple days.”
“I think its perfect then,” Birkoff tapped his hands on the table. “Low expectations are what I excel at now.”
Michael knew that he should respond to what Birkoff was saying at the moment. It was a symptom of something not being right with him, but Michael wasn’t sure if any of them were doing really well outside of Section One. That thought sobered Michael’s thinking and he knew that he needed downtime.
Nikita settled on the towel that they had spread across the beach at the lake as they looked up to the sunny sky and towards a looming mountain. It was warm enough to sit on the beach, but not warm enough to frolic in the water, which was why they were basically alone. She leaned back into Michael’s arms and sighed. “When was the last time we just had downtime?”
“You’ve had downtime… no one knows that you are alive,” Michael snickered into Nikita’s ear as he kissed her neck gently and then smiled. “But I haven’t had time off and not being part of a setup of a mission for a while.”
Nikita grinned slightly. “They have no idea what is going on.”
“It seems that way,” Michael admitted although he didn’t want to fully buy into that feeling of being secure about what was going on. “And when was the last time you were able to get away to spend time with me without being fired?”
“I’ve taken a lot of severe causes in the ICU, Michael. I’ve had some of the worse that have come in… they know that ICU nurses burn out with cases like I’ve had… and I’ve taken the hardest as I knew that it would buy me this time,” Nikita explained as she leaned her head back against Michael’s chest, trying to push the images out of her head. “None of them know that some of what I’ve seen… doesn’t match the worse that I’ve seen…”
“And because you have taken so many of the cases, you’ve been having nightmares.”
Nikita sighed. “Adrian ratted me out.”
“She was concerned.”
Nikita shrugged her shoulders. “I told her not to tell you. I only told her in case it impacted the plans for… well… liberating you.”
“Liberating more than just me,” Michael kissed Nikita’s neck again. “And we are on downtime….”
Nikita snickered. “Is that your way of reprimanding me for not keeping you in the cabin? I thought we could do something more than what we normally do when we get those brief… passionate…”
“Booty-calls?” Michael choked out the phrase and Nikita laughed as she turned to push Michael back against the towel. “You said it!”
“You got the phrase stuck in my head,” Michael admitted as he pushed Nikita’s blonde hair out of her face. “And it never is that between us… no matter how short our time is.”
“I know,” Nikita nodded her head up and down. “Those moments… they make it easier for me to breathe… because I know that someday… you won’t have to leave.”
Michael kissed Nikita tenderly and swallowed. At some point in the next 36 hours he was going to have to let her know that Adam might come into play soon again. He knew that it was probably not something that she wanted to hear, but Michael knew that it was better to tell Nikita face to face. But for now, he just wanted to hold her because these moments did truly make him feel human again.
“Ah… Michael… your coffee is getting cold,” Birkoff stated as he tapped his hands on the table. Michael blinked as he forced himself to not think about those good times with Nikita for the moment. He hoped that they would have plenty of those times to come and knew that his low mood was due to the fight.
He had to make things right between him and Nikita, but right now the melancholy feeling was dragging him down. He probably had it when he was with Nikita earlier and it didn’t help when she fought back. He should be proud of her fighting him, it was who Nikita was. But he shut that down and now he was going to have to do damage control.
After he took a rest.
“You should go see Nikita,” Michael firmly spoke as he looked at Birkoff. “Take her a peanut butter cookie from here. She’ll enjoy that.”
Birkoff looked around and then leaned forward. “Are you ok?”
“Sometimes you are too smart, Birkoff,” Michael stood up as he looked at the table and then brushed out of the coffee shop without another word. Birkoff was confused and now he had to man up and make it upstairs to see Nikita.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 
