21. Twenty-One
21
TWENTY-ONE
PETER DAVIS
CIA Headquarters, November 2022
Three months together
W aking up with Eli in my arms was the best feeling ever and I’d never get tired of it at all. My alarm had already gone off, but she decided to snuggle into me a little more so that neither of us even thought about leaving the bed. How could I disturb this peaceful moment between the two of us? There was no way.
“I know we need to get up, but gimme five more minutes, okay?” she mumbled into my chest, followed by a series of tiny kisses. I smiled widely while I watched her hair being sprawled all over my upper body and her hand resting on top of my stomach. There was a time in my life where I was insecure about the fact that I didn’t have visible abs. But Eli accepted me the way I am and vice versa.
The good, the bad, the pretty, and the ugly.
We’ve seen it all over the past few months and there wasn’t a single situation where I thought of running away and giving up on us.
We might have had a rough start, but as soon as we found each other, we were inseparable.
“We can even have ten minutes if we need it. Oliver postponed the team meeting to after your check-up with Lynn. So no need to rush.”
Her head raised from my chest and her deer eyes appeared tired, but happy.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. And because Oliver is the best boss ever, he allowed me to come to your check-up instead of heading to my desk right away.”
Her eyes widened before her mouth curled into a wide grin. I’d talked to Oliver earlier this week, but decided consciously to keep it a secret until this morning. Eli had rooted for the ignoring-strategy, to avoid thinking about the appointment at med-bay. Lynn would determine if she’d be fully cleared again. It was a big thing as I knew how miserable Eli was when we had to leave her behind with Nate while we headed out for operations. We hadn’t been out of the country, but the interrogation of the one terrorist we caught four months ago had brought more information than expected. We got the news of a handful of sleepers, most of them located in Washington or New York City .
“I’m happy you’ll come. I need someone to hold my hand the entire time,” she joked.
“Oh, that I’ll do.” I leaned down to give her a kiss even though it strained my neck muscles slightly. This looked easier in romance movies.
“Best boyfriend ever,” she whispered onto my lips, and the sound of her words and the vibration of air on my lips let a shiver go down my spine.
Boyfriend.
The word that still let my heart flutter every time I heard her saying it. We didn’t even have one of the special moments where we defined our relationship and gave it a word. It just happened. Suddenly, we were boyfriend and girlfriend. The bad thing was that we didn’t have a date that we could use for our anniversary, so we just decided to go for a whole month instead.
August was our celebrate-the-love-month from now on. It was Eli’s idea and I loved it. She’d been the least complicated woman I’ve ever been with.
Who would have thought regarding our past…
“I’m sure Lynn will clear you,” I said.
“I hope so. She was optimistic two weeks ago when she cleared me from the crutches. And I haven’t even used them a lot the week before, anyway. I feel good. Becks’ physical therapy is really amazing. She brought me back into shape in no time.”
I really hoped Lynn would clear Eli today. I love that woman to death, but she started to become unbearable when we headed out to investigate or catch another sleeper. Haven’t seen anyone fighting and training so hard to be back out in the field. Not even Nate or Lynn. Eli’s determination was unmatched and I admired her for it.
I loved her for it.
“Eli,” I said in a soft but determined voice, and it had its effect, because she rose even more from my chest, now propping herself up on her elbows with her face close to mine. I wiggled my arms out from underneath her to engulf her face within my palms.
She looked at me with those gorgeous deer eyes, and for a moment, I allowed myself to get lost in them, forgetting what I wanted to say.
“It will all be good, Cinnamon.”
Her lips curved up into a smile before she leaned in and placed her lips on mine. It was softer than ever and I enjoyed every moment of it. When her lips touched mine, it was like the world was at peace. Nothing around us mattered anymore. It was only Eli and me against the rest of the world.
“Thank you,” she whispered and the hot air on my lips let the hair in my neck rise.
“I didn’t do anything,” I answered in a whisper as silent as her own.
“Ever since my accident, you haven’t left my side even though I sent you away multiple times. But as stubborn as you are…” she paused to wait for any reaction from me, but I only slightly tilted my head and raised my eyebrow, which caused her to chuckle, “...you ignored me pushing you away and stayed. You knew ex actly what to say and do to help me recover and I’m grateful for that.”
“Someone had to make sure you prioritize yourself for once in your life,” I answered and I meant every word of it. The tears gathering in her eyes were expected, although a part of me still couldn’t believe that she felt comfortable enough around me to lower her shields and be vulnerable.
“Thank you,” she only answered, and the vibration in her lower lip showed me how much of a fight that already had been. One of my hands wandered to the back of her head, and with slight pressure, I guided her head back onto my chest where she fell apart a second later. Her tears were cold as soon as they reached the skin on my chest, but I didn’t dare to move. Eli’s hands were shaking while my own, that was not cradling her head, moved next to our bodies so she could put hers in it. Her fingers wrapped around my palm and I gave her hand a little squeeze in assurance.
“You matter, Eli. I know your father taught you to never prioritize yourself because all that asshole cared for was himself. But you matter to me, Eli. Your wishes, your dreams, your needs, and your health matters to me. So I needed to make sure you don’t hurt yourself any further. Because I was sure I wouldn’t be able to survive seeing you even more hurt. I love you, Eliana Richards.”
For a short moment, I felt her lips touch my chest before she mumbled, “I love you, too.”
“I’ll protect you, Cinnamon. From your father, from the cruelty of the world, from everything and everyone that decides to stand against you. I’ll be by your side. You’re stuck with me now. Boyfriend's promise.” I laughed slightly and was relieved when I heard her laugh as well. Her head turned slightly so I could look into her red and puffy eyes.
“I have no words, Peter. But I’m grateful you became a part of my life.”
“It was about damn time,” I exclaimed and she laughed again.
“Hell yes!” she responded and smiled.
Of course, Eli was cleared for missions again and I was more than only happy for her. Lynn had worked out another PT plan that Eli would need to work on with Becks to be back to 100%, but there was no limitation in sending her back on missions. Finally.
Knowing Lynn and Oliver, it would take another two to three weeks, though, until they would send her on physically straining missions because, even when Eli would never admit it, the leg was still bothering her. I saw her putting more weight on the good leg whenever she was up on her feet for a longer time and she’d never jump over something if she had to land on the bad foot. She was not trusting her body entirely, and even though Lynn officially cleared her, I knew that she had warned Oliver about it.
At the moment, there wasn’t an operation planned, anyway, as we were all occupied in interrogating the caught sleeper terrorists. Being cleared meant that Eli was now able to support us in the interrogation cells, because even though an interrogation wouldn’t count as heavy physical activity, not being cleared meant that she was not allowed to interrogate. Oliver had said to her that she needed to be able to fully defend herself in case something goes wrong. Because even with the bad guys being in shackles or handcuffs, things could go tragically wrong. We’d just seen that a couple of months ago with Lynn.
“Eliana, you’ll interrogate Michael Crumble in cell two. Peter is your back-up in the observation room. Butch and I go for Al-Murak in cell one,” Oliver instructed after we all gathered in the bigger of the offices we were using.
“What do you want me to focus on?” Eli asked.
“Did you read his file?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Iterate what you know about him.”
For a short moment, I saw Eli’s brows tremble as if she wanted to frown, but she regained her posture quickly.
“Michael Crumble, born May 17th, 1993. Son of Jonathan Crumble who was sentenced to death in 2002 after a long trial had found him guilty for helping Iraqi terrorists to take planes hostage on September 11th, 2001. Michael and his mother Emily vowed that they had no idea that Jonathan was involved in the biggest terrorist attack the U.S. had ever seen. Mother and son had been interrogated for months, but no evidence was found that they’d somehow supported or even known of the actions Jonathan had planned and done. After the father died, the family moved away from Jersey and Michael grew up on a small farm in Michigan. Throughout all the years, there were no alarm signs. He’d been an average student, even volunteering in a club that demonstrated against gun violence. Went to Michigan University and studied engineering. After graduating, he moved to the Washington area, still working as an engineer. Crumble quit his job two years ago and hasn’t been employed ever since. We have no specific records about what he was doing during that time, credit card tracking didn’t show anything suspicious.”
“Correct. Thank you for the fresh-up.” Oliver shot Eli a smile that she returned, although I saw very clearly that it didn’t reach her eyes.
“So what’s the focus of the interrogation?” she asked and I could clearly hear her impatience.
“That the son of a known terrorist coincidentally becomes a sleeper twenty years later is bullshit. I want to know the family’s connections to Al-Qaeda.”
“Got it. Let’s see what I can get out of him.”
“Be careful,” Nate commented, and knowing that he had to watch Lynn getting stabbed, I understood that it came with actual concern.
“Sure,” Eli only answered, clearly not valuing her colleagues' concern.
We made our way out of the office and towards the interrogation rooms, and all I could focus on was the tension vibing over from Eli.
“What does he think I am? A greenhorn?” she groaned, frustrated.
“I’m sure he just wanted to make sure you’re fully on-boarded after your accident,” I tried to assure her, but it didn’t have any effect. She was still frantically waving her arms, her head red, and I could almost see steam coming out of her ears.
“For the past weeks I did nothing else than reading files and documenting interrogations or operations on this fucking computer. How the hell would I not be on-boarded, Peter?”
I stopped her in her tracks, placing both palms on her upper arms while staring at her face.
“You need to calm down before going in there. Crumble seems to be the easier case than Al-Murak, but you and I both know that growing up with a terrorist as father can be a bad influence. Maybe he’s just very good at keeping the facade of the not-involved-innocent alive.”
Eli breathed deeply a couple of times and I saw her visibly relaxing.
“Did you just compare my father to a terrorist?” She chuckled .
“He might not attack the United States of America, but he was as bad as Crumble senior.”
Her head spun to the right and then to the left before she leaned in and gave me a quick peck on my lips.
“I love you, Goldie,” she whispered on my lips and I could practically feel my heart jump in excitement.
“I love you too, Cinnamon. To the moon and back.”
“Don’t get all simp on me, Peter. Just because I love you doesn’t mean you’re not disgusting when you’re all simp and shit.”
Gosh, I haven’t loved someone as much as this woman with her filthy mouth.
“No simping. Understood. Now, go be all badass and get the information out of Crumble.”
I cradled her face with my hands before giving her one last, but deep kiss before our paths diverged. She stood in front of the door to the interrogation room and I made my way into the attached observation chamber.
As expected, this woman entered the room with a confidence that was impressive. The way her hips swayed on the few steps towards the metallic chair and how her hair danced around her shoulders. She had it in a ponytail only a moment before, but now it was hanging loose and framed her face beautifully.
I felt my mouth fall open and was grateful that she couldn’t see my reaction right now, because Eliana Richards just blew me away with her beauty. It was all on purpose, obviously, to hide the professional badass she actually was .
And I wasn’t the only one reacting, because Crumble’s eyes were all over here. My veins froze for a moment with jealousy and anger, but then I realized that he wasn’t looking at Eliana in a disgusting way. He was only admiring her beauty the same way that I did. I really should have scolded myself for the short moment of unprofessionalism, but I couldn’t bring my heart to be angry.
Despite all the effort Eli put into the interrogation, Crumble remained his facade of not knowing anything. The only thing she got out of him was a story about how he was recruited by Al-Qaeda, which sounded like a story straight out of a bad action movie. Apparently, he was kidnapped by the guy he was now working with because said terrorist thought he’d be his father. Promising him financial freedom and not much work, Crumble agreed on working with them. What exactly he did to support Al-Qaeda still remained a secret, but I was sure we’d get this information out of him soon.
“You did great in there, Cinnamon,” I said, smiling, when we met again in the hallway.
“Didn’t get anything useful out of him. That guy is trained for these situations. Not a single sign of a lie or insecurity. His face showed less reaction than Kim Kardashian’s after her seventieth Botox fresh-up.”
I know she was frustrated, but her comparison made me laugh and grab her hand. Her fingers winded around mine and I felt the vibration of her own laughter in it.
“You know the protocols, Eli. The first session is never for getting all the information. It’s like two wild animals sniffing each other for the first time. And for that, you did great.”
“Yeah, well. Meh,” she sighed, not convinced by my assuring words.
My feet came to a halt abruptly and through our connected hands, Eli was forced to stop as well, which made her lose balance a bit. I regretted the overdramatic move when I saw her slightly furrow her face because she had put too much pressure on the bad leg.
“Eliana Richards. You did not disappoint Oliver or anyone else by not letting Crumble spill his guts in the first session. Nobody expected this from you. I know you are disappointed in yourself, but there is no need for it. We don’t have the whole picture yet, but we know that Atef or whoever is having active men in the area. This is a win, because we have a new lead we can follow. So you gave us something valuable in the fight against terrorism today. I know you can’t see it, but you should be proud, Eli.”
Her deer eyes looked at me in disbelief and I could practically see the battle in them. Years and years of trauma made it hard for her to be proud of herself. Her father beat into her the intrusive thoughts of her being worthless, which was far from reality.
In that moment, I swore that I’d do anything in my power that one day, Eliana Richards would be able to see herself the way I do.