Mission: Interrupted

Chapter 27 - Would You Love Me If...

"The fuck you say!" Norman yelled as he jumped up from his seat.

"Norman..." Meg said as she stood with him and put her hand on his arm. Immediately he jerked it away. His eyes were as wide as she'd ever seen them and she knew that he was close to a panic attack.

"No... no!" He swallowed a couple of times, before fixing his stare on Bob. "Don't tell me you're actually considering allowing this to happen. For god's sake, she might die!"

It was silent for a few seconds and then Meg quietly spoke up. "Every enemy of the CIA, every assassin in the world, will be gunning for me. Whether I ever had an interaction with them or not, I will now be a symbol... a warning if you will. By killing me they'll be sending a message that we aren't invincible." She did her best to tamp down the growing knot in her stomach and focused all her strength on trying to help Norm understand the situation. "I feel completely confident in being able to defeat El Sombre, but if we don't make it look as if I died then I'll spend the rest of my life on the run."

"So, what... you're going to just have a hand or foot cut off? Send it to this fucker to have as a... a trophy?"

Meg looked over at Bob and asked, "When do you need to leave – tonight or tomorrow?"

"In the morning; there's an agency plane picking us up at 9:30 to take us to the Field office in Atlanta."

"I need some time alone with Norman."

"No problem. We have a command post in an RV down the road at that campground. I'll be there if you need me. There's another crew coming to relieve the one out there now." Then he got up, nodded at Norman, and disappeared out the front door.

Several minutes passed where Meg and Norman awkwardly avoided each other's glances. Meg went to the kitchen and fixed them both a tall drink and returned to the living room. She handed him his glass, and then took his other hand and pulled him up the stairs to her bedroom. She could tell he was reluctant, but he followed her none the less.

They sat on the bed and Meg put her hands on either side of his face to make him look at her. "I'm going to need you to hear me out, and then we can argue or fight or whatever we need to do."

He wasn't happy and his face was mostly closed off, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Before we start talking about the next few days, I want you to tell me why you love me."

He looked over at her, a little surprised, but he sat up and looked at the vaulted ceiling above them. "Well, when I first met you it was your smart-ass mouth. Actually, the mouth combined with how calm and cool you were. Then there were your ninja moves that showed a little taste of how strong you were, and the Jedi mind trick you did on me showed that your strength wasn't just physical, but also mental." He looked over at her and smiled a little before continuing. "Your personality was so unexpected; I'd never met someone with so damn much darkness in them that could also appreciate the joy life had to offer, like dancing in the rain and combining just the right wine with just the right chocolate."

Norman leaned over and cupped the side of her face and continued his monologue. "The day before we left for St. Augustine I prayed that I would meet someone interesting and different from the women we were surrounded by. Then you walk in and get me all twisted up, and it was like you were made from my dreams, while warning me that you weren't emotionally available. Which guaranteed I would fall for you." They both chuckled a little. "But what did it was when you cried over that dress. I stood there looking at this literal warrior, a woman who's not only walked through the shadow of the valley of death... She's done a damn tap dance through it and has the scars to show for it... and something like a pretty blue dress made her choke up. I honestly had been a goner before that, but those tears were the nail in the coffin."