Something Explained pt 2

            Ian waited outside Danny’s house for the better part of the day. He knew she would be working the night shift but he had nothing better to do. He wanted nothing better to do.

            It was early morning when she finally got home. He gave her enough time to get settled in. By now he knew the routine. She would take a shower, then go off to bed. Had she been at his place, that would not have meant sleep, and he wasn’t sure that she’d sleep now, even if he didn’t plan on serenading her.

            Ian got out of his car, grabbed his guitar and an amp, and set up in front of her house. He started playing the opening riff of Last Night by Graeme Watkins Project.

  “We’re world apart, I know,” he started singing.

            At first she didn’t react, then as she started taking off the little jewelry she wore to work, she heard him. She walked over to the window and opened it, looking down at him on the ground from the second story.

            He continued playing and singing until he was done, by which time some of the neighbours had come out to see what the noise was all about. He smiled up at her and her neighbours cheered and clapped.

  “Can I come in?” he asked and everyone turned their attention to Danny.

  “I’d let him in,” said someone in the crowd.

  “Fine,” she said with a faint smile and the crowd cheered once more.

            Ian was somewhat surprised he had succeeded in swooning Danny so quickly, being half in the dog box and all.

  “So you really had no control over what happened?" Danny asked as Ian leaned against her kitchen counter.

  "No," Ian answered, "If I did have control, I would probably have gotten my squad killed along with the villagers."

Danny nodded and sighed. She still did not know what to make of it. After a short awkward silence, she finally looked up at Ian.

  "Tell me more; why were you three even chosen?" she asked.

  “Fifteen successful assignments and you want to know how it started?”

  “Well, yeah, I already know how it ends, so how does it begin?”

  “Ed was the first,” Ian started as they walked to the living room, “the Agency had seen his archery skills at a medieval festival and offered him a job. At the time his whole writing career wasn’t really going anywhere so he accepted the offer. He thought it would help inspire him.

  “Shortly after that they recruited Devon, not really sure why. I mean, he’s a monster with almost any weapon but there had to be more. Never found out what it was though. Two months later they brought me in, and by brought me in I mean they kidnapped me in the middle of the night. I was chosen for two reasons; I’m great with code, especially complex code, given enough time I can take anything apart, and I’ve gotten faster over the years,”

  “And the second reason?” Danny asked.

  “I’m the only person they would follow into the very bowels of hell, and I them. The three of us work well together, always have,”

  “And JR?”

  “What about him?”

  “Why wasn’t he part of this? As I understand it, you two are very close friends,”

  “JR doesn’t always work well in a team, I love the man like a brother but he’s best unleashed not incorporated, if you know what I mean. We were looking into bringing him and Hugo in to join us, after North Africa but that never happened. We returned and the Agency was dead, so our secret lives died with it…mostly,”

  “I see, what was the first assignment?”

  “Paris,” said Ian with a smile, “we’d completed training in a month and were battle-ready, so they sent us. It was a simple recon mission, just gather intel, but it felt more like a holiday. It’s also where I met Sarah,” he concluded staring off into the distance.

  “More than a friend I take it?”

  “She only had eyes for Ed. I met her while I went out on recon. We spent the day together, and the night, and most of the morning. They say you remember your first forever, so far they’re right. But I was very practical back then, when it came to love. I had no idea where she was from, and we left the next day so that was the end of it. My summer fling in Paris we used to call it, before and after.

  “Four months, and a few assignments later, Ed decided to introduce his new girlfriend to us, and it was none other than Sarah. We didn’t tell him, why would we? Paris was a memory, a good memory, but past none the less.

  “They were together for the rest of our career. After a year, Ed proposed and they would have gotten married a few months after North Africa. But that never happened. Somehow the Others found her, we met the man that killed her in Russia, the last successful mission. How he escaped I still want to know,” Ian said and was silent for a while.

  “What happened to him?” asked Danny.

  “After North Africa, all three of us were wrecks. Ed moved out of his house and in with me and JR. Said he could hear her in the house at night. It took him two years, even with my help but after a while I gave up. He never did.

  “We had a few fights about it, normally drunken fights. It was on one such night that I took off his finger. We were fighting about the damn murderer again, he said I had no idea what he was going through and then I told him I knew better than him. Big mistake.

  “I had to tell him everything, which made it a worse fight. He drew his dagger, we struggled for a long while and somewhere in between all the shouting, beating and cursing, I cut off the top two thirds of his right ring finger.

  “We never found it, so after sobering up a bit I took Ed to the hospital and that was the last we ever spoke of it. Until the day he killed him, but even then he just spoke two words, ‘It’s done’”

  “She meant that much to the two of you?” asked Danny and Ian could tell she didn’t really want to know the answer.

  “She was the only other girl I had sex with that early on in a relationship, the other was you,” he said and smiled at her but she turned away. He put his hand under her chin and lightly turned her head towards him. “But what I feel for you, I’ve never felt before,”

  “You know you don’t have to say that just to get me in bed,”

  “I wasn’t saying it to get you in bed,”

 

            It was late afternoon when Ian got home. As he pulled in, he noticed that Ed’s Lexus wasn’t there, not that he was worried over much. He headed inside and straight to the fridge to get a cold fruit juice.

  “Am I now living alone?” asked JR from the living room.

  “No, why would you think that?”

  “Coz both my buddies left me to go…you know,”

  “Fuck?”

  “How are you so blunt about it?”

  “I really don’t see how it’s that hard,”

  “I really don’t see how it’s so easy for a man that before a week ago hadn’t slept with a girl for a good six months,”

  “I really don’t see how this is my problem,”

  “I…touché,”

  “How are things between you and Melisa?” asked Ian, draining the remainder of his juice.

  “Slow. She’s been avoiding me ever since a few days ago, that day you got the letter,”

  “How did you know about the letter?”

  “Danny told me after she found that pdf on Ed’s iPad,”

  “Ah, I see,”

  “I’m still pissed at the two of you. I tell you everything but you didn’t once think to tell me you are super spies,”

  “The fewer people that knew, the better. Not just for us, but for those that didn’t know as well,”

  “I still think you should have told me,”

  “Well, it was pointless after the Agency went to shit, so get over it. There’s no point in dwelling on the past,”

  “I guess,”

  “Tonight, I think we should make a guy’s night, have some fun and get our minds off whatever’s troubling us,” said Ian.

  “I’ll let everyone know,”

  “That means I’m gonna end up calling everyone,” said Ian with a smile.