BLACKBIRD

Chapter Two

Nakoma's form disappeared from the doorway, the wooden door swaying shut, which prompted James to turn on Alana.

"Can I talk to you?"

At the nod of her head, James quietly swept Alana off the patio, his hand hovering near her back though hesitant to touch. He brought them towards the side of the house where only an innocuous evergreen shrub and anodyne white banisters could play witness to their conversation.

"What are you doing?" James gestured to the door of the house. "Civilians aren't allowed on missions."

James wasn't aggressive, but neither could Alana call him friendly, his tone and his face both fighting with confusion. In all honesty, Alana didn't have a concrete answer. She was moving by her gut, by the instinctual impulse to bring Nakoma with them, the root of which she couldn't place. Was this coming from memory of her own fears? Or just a feeling she had?

"She's terrified," Alana tried to reason. Though sincerity seeped into her words, projecting out to James, she was also trying to reason with herself. "Strangers broke into her home, her sister is in the hospital, and now government agents are swarming her backyard. The least we could do is let her watch us take care of the vestige and give her some sort of peace of mind."

"Alana, that's not what we're here to do. We came to deactivate the vestige and be gone within the same moment."

There was a sincerity to James' words too, his eyes shining with what could almost be called a plea. He was acting by protocol, to keep civilians and officers separate, a decision made for the safety of both. But that instinctual pull Alana had - that was now morphing into a subconscious whisper to keep Nakoma with them - was greater than her will to stick to protocol.

"James, just trust me on this," Alana said.

His eyes bore into her, seeping beneath her skin, trying to peel her apart to her barest bones. It was odd. Though she should feel perturbed by the depthful gaze, Alana felt surprisingly at ease. It was almost as if she could recognize the feeling of being under it, like she had been its subject before so very long ago.

"Okay," James murmured.

There was something raw to his single word, something truthful lingering in the ring of his voice. She wanted to describe it as James letting himself learn to trust her, but their exchange felt much too familiar and too unquestioning for it to be called a beginning.

It didn't feel like they were strangers.

The slam of a screen door broke the trance James had focused on Alana, his open expression falling into neutrality near immediately like it was his second nature. Nakoma met them at the side of the house, now dressed in hiking boots and a worn pair of denim jeans, but still clouded by that aura of uncertainty. Her eyes flickered to James first, unsteady with unease, before they found Alana and led her to the agent's side.

"Ready when you are," Nakoma muttered.

Alana nodded, but couldn't help a glance back at James as they walked, who had mindfully placed himself at Alana's other side. She brought them to the temporary observation camp that had been set up just right of the Cadotte's house, weaving past agents in muddy boots with their attentiveness entwined in different documents. They passed first a large gray tent, hovering above tabletops of papers and different devices, then came to a smaller tent, the color of which was darker than the first. Beneath it sat Andrea, a twist to her lips as she read through a report.

James quickened his pace to approach her first, softly rapping against the table Andrea sat at to draw her attention upward.

"Hey, we're ready to check out the vestige," He said.