| Subject: Outside Operative 39 |
Author:
Nikita507
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Sunday, February 02, 10:48:56pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Outside Operative 38+" on Thursday, January 30, 07:11:45pm
“Are you ok with me going over to the cabin?” Michael inquired as he squatted by the couch where Nikita sat. He watched her roll her eyes. “You need to get out of the house… and I’m fine.”
“Kita…”
“Seriously,” Nikita groaned. “I’m tired after a long morning… and knowing Lope, she is going to be back in here in two hours making me walk to the back again…”
Michael smirked. He knew that Nikita said things like this that would indicate that she didn’t particularly care for Lope, but there was part of Nikita, the operative, that knew that Lope was the best thing to happen. She was regaining strength fast now and if her stamina could increase as quickly, Nikita would be well on her way to recovery from the physical impact of muscle atrophy due to the coma.
“And you usually take a nap after lunch,” Michael carefully pointed out. Nikita blinked and looked at Michael. “I haven’t woken up and not known what is going on for a while now.”
Michael nodded his head. Instead, she had nightmares, but not normally during the day, not during her nap. But there was always that chance.
“And Walter needs that cabin worked on… he is driving us all nuts… and Mick is working the staff as quickly as he can here and Walter almost had him in tears,” Nikita continued as she leaned back on the couch. “Go. You need to do something more than just wait for me.”
Michael wanted to talk about what Nikita thought he was doing. He knew that she didn’t like him being there to do what she considered to be waiting on her hand and foot, but he felt that it was his duty. It was what she had done while he was inside of Section – holding on her life to help him. This was the same thing. He had to help her, but that was not a conversation for now.
Michael pressed a kiss to Nikita’s forehead after he stood up. “I won’t be gone long… and I’m not far.”
“Get out of here,” Nikita ordered Michael even as he was leaving the living room. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that she didn’t think she would be falling asleep today because it was clear that he wanted to go and help out at the cabin. He was an active man and had spent too much time cooped up with her. Nikita didn’t like Michael spending all of his time in the house and she needed him to start doing more than just waiting for her to need him.
Michael was about to close the front door as he saw Lope walking down the hallway. She had pulled him aside and suggested that he needed to do this. She started to say that days ago and today Michael finally had the sense that maybe he could leave for a little bit. He wasn’t going too far, even though Lope had suggested he go and visit the small town that was nearby. He was going to work on Walter’s cabin. That was a productive use of his time away from Nikita. But he couldn’t help but wonder what Lope had planned.
Nikita stared at the television and the completely random show that was on and she rolled her eyes. She had no idea where the remote was and the show was about some housewives that seemed to be determined to fight each other. She wanted to see if something else was on but instead she just stared at the stupid show.
“Knit or crochet?” Lope asked as she entered the living room with a bag in her hands. Nikita tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “What?”
“You need a hobby now that you aren’t sleepy after lunch,” Lope explained as she sat on the coffee table and pulled out some yarn from the bag. “Lucky for you, I know both knitting and crocheting. So… knit or crochet?”
The yarn was colorful in Lope’s hands and Nikita rubbed a hand along her jaw for a moment. She never had a chance to have a hobby. This wasn’t something that she ever considered. “Look… I don’t think I’m crafty.”
“I know that you never had downtime…” Lope shrugged her shoulders. “Between studying… and helping Michael…”
Nikita swallowed hard. Lope hadn’t really spoken about the things that she had learned about Section One and Nikita wanted it to stay that way. It felt like she was infringing on that space by talking about the time that Nikita was on the outside. She didn’t have time. When she wasn’t either studying to be a nurse or being a nurse, she was busy making sure that Michael was fine and that he wasn’t in trouble in Section. There were plenty of nights or days that she didn’t rest as she did it all and that was just fine with Nikita.
Just before Nikita was about to attack about being forced to think about those days again, the wheels in Nikita’s head clicked and she stopped. “You just happened to have yarn and supplies?”
“I do both,” Lope pointed out and Nikita shook her head slightly. “This isn’t about a hobby… this is … this is physical therapy.”
Lope placed the yarn down beside her with a sigh and knew that Nikita had figured it out. She had hoped that Nikita would just be willing to learn without worrying about the other motives, but Nikita had a sharp mind and Lope was caught. “In ways…”
“Therapy doesn’t start again until three.”
“That’s been all focusing on the big muscles, Nikita. And you’ve been making good strides… but you must sense that we haven’t worried about dexterity… Yet, I know that you noticed that when you do use a remote, it’s the big one that Mick brought… because you can’t hand the small one…” Lope softly countered as she knew that it was always a raw thing to talk about with Nikita – things that she couldn’t do yet.
“And learning how not to tie knots into the yarn is going to help with that?” Nikita sarcastically retorted as she shook her head. “I’m not the crafty type.”
“It’s better to try this than boring dexterity exercises… I don’t like the equipment used for that… and you don’t make anything… you can make… a scarf… or a blanket... something. You actually will accomplish more than just PT,” Lope pulled the yarn up into her hands and she saw Nikita stubbornly crossing her arms.
Lope leaned back with her hands behind her and pressed her lips together. “Are you willing to just try?”
Nikita looked at the yarn and then looked at the television where the two women were pulling each other’s hair while they were dressed up in some beautiful gowns. Nikita groaned. “Why do I have a choice between knit or crochet?”
“I know both,” Lope shrugged her shoulders. “I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers… My Nanna, my mother’s mother, she was the knitter. She taught me to knit.”
Lope held up the two needles and made a quick square. She placed it down and then pulled out the one crochet hook. “Of course when Gammie… that’s what I called my father’s mother…. When Gammie found me knitting, she taught me to crochet…”
Soon Lope held up a delicate small circle. “So… we can try both… but I would suggest starting with one.”
“Which one is easiest?” Nikita tentatively asked and Lope laughed. “I can do both… so I’m not a good judge at that… both use both hands and will be good… And we’ll start simple.”
Nikita looked down at her hands and shivered. Her fingers had done so many things, nothing like this. She had typed papers with her fingers and she had forged documents. She had loaded bullets into guns and she had carefully tied timers to bombs.
There were times that she was doing both, writing a paper and putting together a bomb in order to save Michael from a bad mission plan that Madeline had purposely put into play as she was afraid Michael was gaining too much power in Section One.
And her hands had touched Elena and they had touched Adam, the boy that Section One had lied to tell Michael was his son and her own fingers had proved that he wasn’t Michael’s son. The same fingers that had touched Michael the one time while dancing, so far apart, but yet so close together. And then they touched Michael while they were on the boat in Lyons.
“Nikita,” Lope spoke loudly and Nikita turned her head, surprised to feel tears on her face and to have Lope standing right in front of her. “What?”
“I’ve been asking you what yarn you wanted to use for about ten minutes,” Lope replied as she softened her face and backed away. She saw Nikita pushing at the tears and needed to change the feeling in the room. “So… what color?”
Nikita frowned and shook her head, upset that she had gotten lost in her thoughts like she had. Some of them weren’t as much thoughts as they were feel images of the times. “You know… I am feeling rather tired…. This isn’t probably a good day.”
“We all get caught up in thoughts now and then,” Lope shrugged her shoulders as she picked up two yarns. “Now, pick one.”
Nikita could see that Lope was not going to back down and pointed to the gray yarn and Lope settled down right beside her on the couch.
When Michael came back around three, he found Nikita sitting there, a crochet hook in her hand as she slowly moved from one stitch to another. With a frown, Nikita dropped the hook and pulled out the yarn and looked up at Michael. “Hi.”
“What are you doing?” Michael inquired with a hitched eyebrow.
“Lope says it’s called crocheting… she said that I’m making a scarf. At this rate, it will be done a year from now,” Nikita half joked as she pushed the yarn away and then looked at Michael. “And Walter’s cabin? How is that going?”
“It will be done in about a year from now with Walter’s standards,” Michael frowned and Nikita scowled. “Not allowable.”
Michael almost wanted to laugh. “Really?”
“I’m going to talk to Walter… because… he can’t be like that,” Nikita declared and Michael smiled for reasons that Nikita didn’t understand.
But Michael couldn’t wait to have Nikita talk to Walter about the cabin. It was a sign that she was truly coming back and he wanted to see it in action.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 
