untitled
Sark reached the safe house first, his pulse racing but his demeanor calm as he methodically combed through the small one bedroom apartment.Just because the address was listed as theirs didn't mean that it hadn't been compromised. He prodded the fixtures; lights and undersides of furniture. There weren't many places anything could be hidden in the stripped room; no cheap street vendor paintings (no expensive ones either for that matter), no phone, no stereo, no clock. Nothing to make the interior look as authentic as the exterior. False fronts were a necessity. Safety came first.
He stepped into the shower when he was done, palms still hot from the gun he'd be squeezing less than an hour before and the buzz of the run still humming in his ears. There was one lone unwrapped bar of soap waiting and he'd shut his eyes letting the spray of water hit his face, the hot water prickling his cheeks and lips.
Lauren was sitting on the bed, blouse half unbuttoned and hands letting her tightly braided hair loose. Her gun was laying next to his on the nightstand, which was one of the three furniture pieces in the room - others being the bed and dresser,which contained a change of civilian clothing for whoever was to occupy the stripped room. Her left bra strap was pushed off when Sark reached her,fingers in her newly released hair and lips on her forehead.
....
He stirred when he felt the mattress shift beneath him. Lauren's weight next to him gone.
He didn't have to open his eyes to know that it was early. As always when the window had been left open all night a heavy scent of fog lay in the room. He didn't have to open his eyes to know what Lauren was doing. He could hear the soft thumps of her bare feet as she moved around the bare room picking up her stray clothes and put them on creating a meticulous facade. He rolled over to his side and watched her move about. He knew her routine by now, and he knew that it helped her getto where she needed to be in order to be both a wife and an agent.
She sat back down on the bed with her back to him, and he could see her spine moving beneath her skin as she bent down to pull on her boots.She rubbed the undersides of her wrists together and Sark recognized the scent she coated herself with. She usually only used it when they were to meet.
"I thought he didn't like that one."
"His isn't the only opinion that matters." Instead of looking at him when she replied she gathered her hair up into a neat ponytail. There were no circles under her eyes, nothing heavy in her stance to indicate all the running and struggling the night before. It wasn't his Lauren who left the room, and it wasn't really Lauren who went home to Vaughn.