LockDown Ward
Monday 09:30 EDT
Clay walked into Casey's room, hours after AJ had left and stood in the doorway, watching her lying against the pillows, her eyes closed against the fluorescent lighting above.
"Hey"
She whispered a small smile forming on her lips, her eyes still shut.
Clay grinned.
"How did you know I was here?"
"I always know."
She opened her eyes and looked straight at him, a smile lighting her eyes.
It was something he had thought never to see again.
Clay took a seat next to her bed, the same chair he had sat in for the last 40 odd hours, and took her hand in his.
"How are you feeling?"
He was nervous, he wanted to pour his heart out to her. To tell her everything he had felt, every second he thought he was going to lose her.
But he couldn't...he didn't know how to start.
Casey shrugged.
"I'd be better if I was at home."
She said with a hopeful smile.
"You're going nowhere anytime soon, and that's an order from the Director." Clay said grinning. "The NEW director that is!"
"New Director....what happened to Stevens and Myers?"
Clay took a deep breath.
"Turns out we were right.
Bytchkov was working for Myers and Stevens, smuggling missile launch codes and nuclear arms to a group of Arab Nationals operating out of the Singapore Embassy in Washington.
Apparently they were using the cover of the Asian Trade Summit being held there to transfer the information. Fielding was working a deep cover op inside the Embassy when he got hold of the codes.
Once he realised what they were he destroyed them, but not before teaching Anya what they were.
Turns out our little blonde waif has a photographic memory, she wrote all of the codes down on pieces of paper in the waiting room while we were here, that's how we figured this whole mess out...they all matched, every single one of them."
"He taught her missile launch codes...what kind of parent does that?"
Casey asked, horrified that someone would put a child's life in jeopardy that way.
Clay shrugged, his won opinion of Fielding was getting lower by the second.
"Apparently Fielding thought that he could use Anya as a bargaining chip if he was ever captured, but instead of kidnapping him, they took Anya and held her hostage.
When we rescued Anya they went after Fielding to get the codes, it doesn't look like he cooperated though, Baltimore PD fished his body out of the harbour about an hour ago."
"So where do Myers and Stevens fit in?" Casey asked.
"Bytchkov, was being threatened by Myers and Stevens with deportation to Russia if he failed to bring Anya in, and seeing as he's facing charges of treason, he's not too keen to get back to the Mother country.
Myers agreed to set up a sting op, using us to get Anya out of the Singapore Embassy, but Bytchkov had to then get Anya away from us, get the codes and eliminate both of us.
Turns out that Myers and Stevens were running the entire operation from Langley, the whole time.
They set us up Case.
Once we got Anya out of the cabin and to safety...Bytchkov went after you.....then after he failed , he came to the hospital to try and finish the job.....you know the rest."
"So what's happened to Myers and Stevens?"
She asked softly.
Painfully aware that her partner's voice had become husky remembering that moment at the cabin when he found her.
"They've been arrested and charged with treason. Bytchkov was quite happy to tell all once it was guaranteed that he would never go back to Russia."
"What idiot guaranteed him that?" Casey asked with a scornful look.
"I did." Clay said solemnly, then he grinned "But then....y'know I've learned that there are no real guarantees of anything in this life!!"
Casey looked at him in disbelief and then laughed.
"Now THERE'S the Clay I know and lo..."
The sentence faded away, and the light moment was gone, replaced by unanswered questions and long held fears.
"So...who's the new Director?"
Casey asked quietly, trying to ease the uncomfortable silence that had so suddenly grown between them.
Clay smiled.
"Guess?"
"Um....Tim?" She asked with a smile.
"Who told?" He admonished, the smile still not leaving his face. "The President appointed Tim Fawkes Director of the CIA this morning at 06.00."
Casey grinned.
"That's fantastic, he must be thrilled."
"He is..."
Clay let his voice trail off, and they sat for another moment in uncomfortable silence.
The seconds ticked by to minutes, and still they sat.
Both of them wanting to speak, neither daring lest they say too much.
"Are we going to talk about what happened?" Casey asked softly.
Clay pulled his hand from hers and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I shouldn't have let you get out of that jeep Case...it should have been me."
He said softly, his head bowed his hair falling across his forehead in a tumble.
Casey looked at him, wanting to reach up and brush the hair back from his face and tell him that she was OK and it was all because of him....but she knew he was wrestling with misplaced guilt over the shooting.
The only way to get through to him was the truth.
"Clay, I made a calculated judgement as an Agent, I assessed the situation, tabulated the risk and took it anyway...it's what I was trained to do...."
"I know Case, but still, it should have been me to..."
"Clay I made a judgement call, the best one for everyone at the time. We had no choice it was the only way of getting Anya out of there alive, you know that as well as I do."
She said sternly.
Clay looked at her, waiting perhaps to see blame or maybe anger in her eyes.
Instead he looked at her and saw only his partner, the woman he loved smiling back at him.
"Besides..." She said with a grin. "It all worked out in the end."
Clay looked at her and shook his head trying not to smile.
He had said that exact same thing to her 3 years ago, when she had helped pull him out of a car wreck after a mission in Prague went sour, and if memory served she refused to speak to him for 2 days after that comment.
"I don't know wether to kiss you or kill you!!" He said gruffly.
"Someone's already tried to kill me, you might wanna try the other......"
She said smiling at him, seconds before his lips came down on hers.
It was meant to be a soft kiss, a kiss that said 'I'm glad you're ok' but it never ended up that way.
Two people who had so often relied upon their instincts to survive in a world of darkness , gave into the only instinct that truly matters...the one that guides the heart.