Author:
From an old board friend
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Saturday, September 17, 08:08:15am
Author’s note: The idea of this scene comes from reading sk’s “The Gallery”, and her mention of Nikita’s hand signal to Michael. For that reason this little piece is dedicated to sk.
**
Open Channel
“Are you awake?”
I hear his whispered question in the dark and lay there not moving. It’s late. I’m tired. And I don’t want to move away from his embrace. I don’t have the strength to answer him. This last mission was hell and I feel as if I could sleep for two days straight. Instead I give a half grunt.
He moves against me, lips pressed to the back of my shoulder and then up over to my ear. “Are you awake?” he asks again.
This time I nod my head slightly. Yes, I’m listening.”
I feel him sigh, a deep slow breath as he reaches around and covers my hand with his. I sense an urgency in his action and that he wants my full attention. So I open my eyes and blink at the shadows around us. “I’m awake,” I say. “What is it?”
His lips are right next to my ear. The sound of his breathing is warm and intimate. Without speaking he maneuvers his hand so that my palm lays atop his. He spreads his fingers open, moving mine with his in the process, and he says to me, “Open.” Then he moves his fingers again, this time closing them together, and he whispers, “Closed.” Michael repeats this once more but this time adds more instruction. “Fingers open mean there’s audio and visual. Fingers closed means no audio, no visual.
I watch him do this with a slight frown. It’s the middle of the night. We’re lying in bed and he’s trying to teach me some code?
“What do you mean?” I ask, wondering if this is for some upcoming mission that I don’t know about yet. But Michael is patient and repeats his actions again. This time he holds his hand up in front of me and I can see the dark outline of it in the semi-darkness of the room.
“This means that we can be seen and heard, so we need to be careful with what we do and say. This means that we’re clear, no one’s monitoring us.”
I frown at his revelation and wonder why he is telling me this. Is there something he knows that I don’t?
“What if there’s audio and no visual?” I ask, curious now to see how much he had thought this code through. If I knew Michael he’d have an answer.
Michael closed his pinky and ring finger. “Then I would do this,” he explained. “These two fingers are visual; these two audio. If they’re all extended and open it means that we’re seen and heard.”
He went over it some more over the next five minutes and I obediently memorized the codes. When he was done, I turned in his arms to face him. I couldn’t see his expression but I knew that he was wide awake. He had to be if he’d been up figuring out these signals. But he remains silent as he waits for me to speak.
There’s a lot that I want to say, maybe too much because I can’t seem to find the words to explain everything that I’m thinking. Finally I settle by reaching down for his hand and clasp my fingers around his. “Do you know that I sleep best when you’re with me?”
He doesn’t answer, and I explain. “Despite all the crap I give you about you being too protective of me, I sleep best when you’re here with me. Do you know why? It’s because I know that I’m safe with you here, that you’ll always do everything in your power to keep me safe. Thank you.”
His answer is to lean down and kiss me softly.
A few days later I bump into Michael inside Section and he tells me he’s been looking for me. He extends his hand out to the side, indicating that I should precede him. The look in his eyes causes me to glance down at his hand. There's the signal; No visual but they could hear. Glancing up I see him watching me, wondering if I remember. I smile and nod.
“So what did you need, Michael?” I ask, my voice all business as I fall into step beside him. Inside I can’t help but feel a surge of triumph for him and his ingenuity. No matter how hard Section tries to monitor us I can always trust Michael to find us an open channel.
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
|
Feedback: 
