| Subject: Priority Mail 260 |
Author:
Nikita507
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Date Posted: Wednesday, June 08, 11:33:11pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Priority Mail 257+" on Saturday, June 04, 11:20:47pm
Nikita walked into the coffee shop with Michael and looked around while following Michael to the corner table. She sat down beside him and shook her head. “I don’t like this.”
“I want you to talk to Tom… and listen to him,” Michael reached over and took a menu out and handed it to Nikita. “They have plenty of tea.”
“Why couldn’t we tell anyone that we were meeting with Tom?” Nikita inquired as she barely even glanced at the menu. Michael tapped the menu. “We need to order.”
Nikita looked at the barista and glanced at the menu. “Can I have a Golden Moon Tea… the Honey Pear with extra hot water?”
The barista nodded his head and Michael ordered a plain coffee au lait. Nikita pushed the menu back towards Michael and stared at him. “Why haven’t we told anyone that we are here?”
“Some things are important enough to be just between us,” Michael justified the reasoning behind this. He didn’t want to admit that he wasn’t sure if this was the right decision. But he couldn’t go to Walter first about this. If push came to shove and Beatrice was right for Nikita, but wrong for Walter, Michael would go with her because Nikita needed someone.
Nikita would never see it that way if he told her this beforehand. Nikita would weight Walter’s needs much heavier than her needs.
Yet, Michael could tell that his answer did not satisfy Nikita as she turned her head away. She stared at the counter as the barista prepared their drinks. It was as the drinks were in front of them that she finally spoke. “I don’t entirely trust Tom. He was one of the powers that were… you know…”
Michael almost choked on the sip of the coffee au lait that he had just taken. Nikita rolled her eyes. “I was Operations, Michael. How could you think I wouldn’t know?”
“He didn’t know that you knew,” Michael leaned towards her. “And it doesn’t sound as if the powers that be were against you, Kita.”
Nikita shook her head from side to side. “How was I to know that?”
“They wanted you to be Operations… I think they had lost control of Madeline and Paul… they wanted you… not me…” Michael commented as he watched Nikita as she picked up her tea and blew on it carefully before taking a sip. He waited until she swallowed the sip. “They knew that it was going to be hard for you to do what they asked you to do… they were prepared to help you.”
Nikita placed the cup down and turned in her chair. “Would you have trusted them?”
Michael was silent for a while and composed himself. “I don’t think you ever gave them the opportunity, Kita… and they didn’t want you to handle what you had to do… it was their way of trying to make amends… I think they truly had your best interest in mind… they had someone ready to help you transition back out here… instead of on your own…”
“Oh god…” Nikita whispered as her face paled. Michael tilted his head. “What?”
Nikita shook her head. “Tom can’t do this…”
“What are you talking about, Kita?”
“Beatrice,” Nikita rasped as she blinked back tears. She started to move and Michael got his hand around her wrist to stop her from leaving. Nikita groaned. “I won’t do this to Walter.”
Michael shook his head. “Kita… how did you know?”
Nikita turned her head with a wince. “Come on, Michael… I was Operations!”
Michael dropped his head as he chewed on his lip much like Nikita normally would. He shook his head as he pulled Nikita closer to him. “I know that you were Operations… but I wasn’t there… and I know that you are skilled… beyond even what I trained you to be… but I don’t question you… I just wish you didn’t know.”
Nikita watched Michael lift his head and she closed her eyes. “You don’t know it all.”
“What?” Michael inquired and Nikita swallowed hard. “I don’t think Tom told you everything… Yes… Beatrice is Belinda’s identical twin…”
The door opened and both of them looked at Tom and Beatrice. Nikita shook her head and she swallowed hard. “You don’t see it. Do you, Michael?”
“See what?” Michael asked and Nikita turned her head away as she couldn’t hide the tears, relieved that they were in a corner and being left alone. “Beatrice is a twin… and she had twin nephews…”
“Twins run in families,” Michael commented as he blinked his eyes, caught off guard. He looked at Tom as Beatrice moved closer to the table, faster than Tom. “She is trying to tell you that I’m Jason’s aunt.”
Michael felt as if he had been double-crossed. He glared at Tom and then looked at Nikita. “Belinda was… Birkoff’s mother?”
“No,” Nikita shook her head as she dropped her head, unwilling to look at anyone any further.
“My older sister... her name was Mary… she is the reason why I became a therapist… when she lost the twins…” Beatrice explained as she pulled a chair away from the side of the table and put it to the side of the table so she could move closer to Nikita. “It’s not fair all the things that you’ve had to keep inside of your head.”
“I didn’t give this information to Jason… I hide it… form him and Walter,” Nikita mumbled as she didn’t look up at anyone. Tom was sitting down and he pulled the chair away from the table as he saw Michael’s glare. He didn’t know how to bring out this information. This wasn’t something that he liked to do. If things had gone as he tried to do for Nikita, this all could have been avoided. But here they were and Tom worried that Nikita was going to push Beatrice away for the sake of her friends.
Beatrice waited a few moments and saw that Nikita was not going to lift her head. “Mary had to deal with lots of secrets… she didn’t tell us what happened to her sons… they were just gone… and I only stumbled upon it when some folks wanted me to evaluate Madeline’s stability from afar… because she was showing stress with too many secrets… that is what I can help you with… to get it all out of your head, Nikita. You weren’t meant to keep it all.”
“I won’t… do that to them… especially not Walter…” Nikita shook her head with a broken voice. Michael swallowed hard as he stared out the window. He turned his body to look at Nikita’s hunched body. “This has to be what is right for you, Kita… you know that you need someone…”
Nikita lifted her head to look at Michael. “I have you.”
“I’m not enough,” Michael sadly admitted as he stroked Nikita’s face. “Walter wants this for you… Jason wants this for you… they know how much you sacrificed at the end… they wouldn’t want you to continue to suffer like this… for them to not learn something…”
Nikita couldn’t take it and she dropped her head away from Michael again, covering her head with her hands. Beatrice reached out to stop Michael from touching her. She indicated for Michael to wait.
It was painful to watch for minutes and Tom actually got up to go to the counter to get a couple cups of coffee instead of having the barista come over.
“Nikita… I need you to lift your head and look me in the eyes… Trust me with this,” Beatrice finally spoke as she touched Nikita’s hands. She helped Nikita pull her hands down off of her head and she waited for Nikita to look at her. “Do you see Belinda?”
Nikita looked at Beatrice’s eyes and she flinched at first. Then slowly, Beatrice saw Nikita move her head from side to side until finally her mouth dropped open. “No.”
“That’s because I’m Beatrice,” Beatrice leaned in closer with a gentle smile. “I know that it is going to be hard, but you have to trust Michael. Especially in regards to Walter. He may have loved my sister, but I would have told Madeline if she wanted to control Walter, it wasn’t with my sister… it was with you.”
Nikita shivered as she swallowed back tears and lifted shaky hand to her face. Michael pulled out a napkin and handed it to Nikita. Nikita swiped at the tears as she looked at Beatrice tentatively. “I don’t like this.”
Beatrice took the napkin from Nikita’s hand and finished wiping at her face. “It isn’t going to be comfortable. I’m going to challenge you… some days you are going to hate me… but I can help you relieve yourself of the things that are in your head… in a way that will make you a better woman… first for yourself… then for Michael… and then finally, everyone else in your life.”
Nikita leaned back in the chair and took a couple deep breathes. She felt Michael rubbing her neck and she leaned into him. “I need another cup of tea… for while we talk here… about what to do about Walter and Jason… because I won’t lie to them…”
Michael felt some tension leave his body. She was going to give this a chance and Michael could start feeling a lot of hope, even though it was still very tentative. Something could still go wrong, but right now, Nikita was thinking about herself and that was what was most important.
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