Chapter Text
When Christen opens her eyes, she can’t tell because she’s still surrounded in darkness.
“Ughhhh.” She groans, feeling the top of her forehead for blood because of the pounding there, her hand returning clean.
“Chris?!”
She thinks she hears her name, she can’t be sure. The pounding in her ears is so loud.
“Chris! Is that you?!”
She hears Ali call to her again, but she still can’t see anything.
“Ali?! Wha— what happened? What’s going on?” Christen tries to put together a sentence, the pounding in her head making it difficult. She blinks several times, as her eyes finally begin to adjust to the dim room around her. She looks around and sees nothing but solid concrete walls on every side. “Ali…! Where are you?!”
“I think I must be in the room next to you…” She hears Ali respond, finally taking note of the vent in the top corner of the wall on her right. “I don’t know what’s going on. We were in the safehouse, there was the bright flash of light… and then…”
“We wake up here.” Christen finishes for her quietly, her eyes now fully adjusted to see the outline of the doorway on the wall in front of her. “Where’s Tobin… and Ashlyn and Allie? Can you hear them like you can hear me?” Christen asks her friend.
“No…” Ali responds. “I’ve called out several times. You grunting was the first and only sign of life I’ve heard so far.”
Christen finally gains the strength to stand, her headache now dulling down to the background. She leans against the wall for a moment once she’s on her feet, letting her body adjust. As she looks around, she can feel the stress mounting around her from the situation they’ve found themselves in.
“Take a deep breath, Chris.” Ali calls over to her. “In and out.”
Christen follows her friend’s advice, going through a quick breathing routine to try and slow the building panic attack. She’s grateful, to say the least, that it seems to work for now. She walks around the room a few times, trying to get her body feeling as close to normal as possible.
“How long have you been awake?” She calls over to her friend.
“About an hour… maybe two. It’s hard to tell in here.” Ali answers.
Christen simply hums in response. She’s now standing in front of the door, staring it over for any sign handle or point of entry, finding none. She begins to feel along the wall around the doorway for any irregularity while she continues her conversation with Ali. “Are you hurt at all?”
“Ahh… I um… I don’t think so.” Ali responds. “I’ve got a killer headache and my eyes are burning though.”
“Same.” Christen responds. “I think it was a flash bang they set off in the house.” She explains her thoughts, but her mind is now concentrating on the small square next to the door that she’s found. She pulls a bobby pin out of her hair, bending it open, and sticking it into one of the sides of the square. It takes a few minutes and a little bit of bending, but eventually a piece of the wall pops off. “I’d assume headaches would be normal after experiencing one of those.” Christen continues, taking in the electrical components in front of her, silently sending up a thanks at seeing her own hardware pieced into the circuit board.
“Yeah… that makes sense.” Ali says, before asking, “Where do you think the others are?”
Christen has both of her hands in the wall, pulling wires and reconnecting them in different places. Hardware and electric wiring had never been her strength, but she knows just enough to be a little dangerous. “I’m not sure…” she says, placing the final wire into place and hearing a satisfying *click* next to her. “But let’s go find out.” She says as the practically invisible door slides open.
She walks out into a hallway, immediatly noticing 3 other doors across from her that she assumes are also similar cells to the one she just came from. She turns to the door next to her own, finding a keypad and promptly opening the door. Ali comes rushing out, the two embracing quickly, “How the hell did you get out?!” Ali asks.
“Ahh, basic wiring?” Christen answers, grabbing Ali by the hand and pulling her into the hallway.
“Basic wiring, my ass.” Ali mutters. “Now what?”
“Umm, I haven’t really gotten that far.” Christen says, smiling slightly. She turns and looks behind them to see a door one way, but also notices that there’s a door in front of them. “Ok, we pick a door and go find the others.” Christen says confidently.
But just as they attempt to decide on a door, the one behind them opens.
“I should have known better than to bet against *The Christen Press* in a jail cell.” Jill Ellis laughs to the two of them, two tall men with guns behind her. “Come on, I was coming to get you anyway. All you had to do was be a little patient, but I guess you just couldn’t.”
There are several retorts that come to Christen’s mind, but she swallows them all and instead, simple asks, “Where are the others?”
Ellis halts herself halfway from where she was turning to go through the door she entered, turning back to the women. She smiles what Christen can only describe as an evil smile, “Follow me.”
__
When they walk into the room Ellis was bringing them to, the first thing they notice is
“Tobin!”
“Ashlyn!”
“I’m here too, in case anyone was wondering.” Allie fills in. The trio are sitting in chairs, their arms bound behind their backs and their feet tied to the legs of the chairs.
“Aww, no one cares about poor Agent Long.” Ellis laughs, walking over to the open area of the rome where the wall is comprised entirely of monitors and screens.
Christen pulls her eyes away from Tobin’s long enough to take in the data running across the screens. She swallows thickly as she reads the information, all of it confirming everything they’ve suspected all along.
They were after the surveillance servers. They were planning to use the takeover of uniGames to do it.
“So, I suppose this is where I give my big evil villain speech, isn’t it?” Ellis says, laughing as she turns to face the others in the room. “But from everything that I know about Ms. Press and also this CIA team, something tells me that I don’t need to give the speech. You already know.”
“We do.” It’s Christen who responds, surprising even herself at her strength in the terrifying situation. “Right now, I’m just trying to figure out why you kidnapped us.”
“Corporate and National espionage is one thing, kidnapping? Murder? That’s next level.” Allie backs her up.
“Well, you’re little ‘mission’ last night forced my hand.” Ellis explained. “I wasn’t likely going to be able to access what I needed from your servers before the CIA or Interpol came knocking on my door, so I thought, why not bring the next-best thing here to me.” She finishes, gesturing at Christen.
Christen stares her down for several moments, pondering her next steps. She could be sarcastic. She could be silent. But she chooses to just be honest. “I will never help you.”
But Ellis just smiles in return. “We’ll see.” She says, turning and nodding to one of the men standing next to the three CIA women. The man steps up, sending two punches right into Tobin’s stomach.
“Ooomf.” Tobin groans at the somewhat unexpected pain.
“Tobin!” Christen calls, starting to try to run over to her, but being held back by another man behind her. Tobin continues to receive blow after blow, and Christen fights at the arms holding her in place, but it’s of no use. The only thing keeping her from giving Ellis everything she wants is Allie’s eyes and the shaking ‘no’ of her head.
Tobin would want her to be strong. But the strength is not lasting.
Christen is desperately trying to come up with an alternative solution that can stop the beating and end the chaos.
“Come on, Christen.” Ellis speaks as the beating pauses for a moment. “I don’t want to hurt your girlfriend here, but I will do whatever it takes for those servers. So help me out here.”
Christen remains silent, her eyes never leaving Tobin.
She hears Ellis sigh, before the large man walks back over to Tobin. “No!” She hears herself say. But this time, instead of punching, the man pulls back on Tobin’s chair so that the front legs are off the ground. Tobin is leaned back, as another man places a cloth over her face, and suddenly, she can’t breathe.
“Oh my gosh.” Ali whispers next to Christen as they watch Tobin being waterboarded for several seconds. Christen knows Allie wants her to be strong. She knows she’s not supposed to give in.
But the sounds of Tobin drowning are too much.
“Okay!!” She shouts finally, “I’ll do it. Just stop!”
Ellis smiles in victory, as she nods to the man pouring water over Tobin, who promptly stops as well. Tobin coughs for several minutes, spitting out water and coughing more.
They half-drag Christen up to the platform, pushing her into a seat with a one main monitor and a keyboard in front of her. “You have five minutes to get started on what we want to see before we start again with your lover.” This time it’s Ivanov whispering in her ear, in a thick accent. “And I don’t think she can handle much more.” He says, nodding over to where Tobin’s head is hung low, the exhaustion and pain taking its toll.
Christen thinks for a moment, before she sets to work.
“Christen, you can’t do this.” Allie calls to her before she lets out a soft scream after getting punched in the face.
But Christen is the one on a mission now.
Because the one thing she’s wanted more than anything since arriving in Manchester is to feel like she’s in control.
The one thing she’s wanted is to be confident in what is taking place.
And this whole time, she’s been fighting this… situation, with one hand tied behind her back.
But Jill Ellis just put her in front of a computer. Jill Ellis just told her to write some complicated coding that Jill herself doesn’t understand.
Jill Ellis just gave her a gift.
She gave her the key to leveling the playing field.
So now, she’s going to make it level.
“You’re running out of time.” Ellis says, walking up behind her slowly.
“Who, me?” Christen responds, her eyes not leaving the computer screen in front of her. “I’ve been done for a while, actually.” She says, her fingers continuing to type away.
Ellis doesn’t say anything at first, confused by what the woman means. “Then show us.” Ivanov growls.
With a few clicks, security cameras from all over government buildings begin to pop up on the screen-filled wall in front of everyone in the room.
Ellis and Ivanov both look up, now paying little attention to Christen or any of the others. “We’ve got it!” Ivanov shouts, high-fiving a man standing next to him. They all begin to talk amongst themselves, mostly in Russian from what Christen can understand, so she types in a few more lines before standing and silently making her way back to Ali. She looks over at Allie, Ashlyn, and Tobin, who are all sporting confused looks of utter failure. But Christen just winks at them, imploring them to trust her.
Ivanov sits at the computer that Christen had just been working at, typing in a few lines of code before he gets a large error screen, followed by a blaring alarm on the device. With each subsequent click or coding entry, another camera view on the screen does the same thing - and soon, the room is filled with angry red error messages that read “Access Denied.”
“What the hell?” Ellis spits out through closed teeth, turning and marching over to Christen. “What did you do?!”
But Christen just smiles and shrugs, “I did exactly what you wanted me to. I gave you access.”
“Then WHY is the access being revoked!” She screams, grabbing Christen by the arm and pulling her forward over to where the computer is.
“Hmm. Hard to say…” Christen responds, pretending to ponder on it. “I’m guessing it’s the failsafe put in place to prevent any outside device from accessing the system or the servers.” She says, turning with a smile. “I must have forgotten to turn it off when I went in. My bad!”
“Well TURN IT OFF NOW!” Ivanov shouts, jumping up and slapping Christen in the face.
To her right, Christen can hear the chains moving. She turns to see Tobin pulling at them, her face clearly angry from watching Christen being hurt. She sends as much calmness as she can to the other woman, knowing what she doesn’t, that this will all be over soon.
“Well unfortunately, I can’t.” Christen explains. “Once it’s accessed, there’s no way to shut off the alarm from the failsafe. It will keep blaring until the source is reported back as secured and the threat, neutralized.”
It takes longer than it should, several seconds, but Ivanov and Ellis both catch on to what Christen is saying.
“Secured?"
“Neutralized?” They say at the same time.
“Yeah. Again… my bad?”
Just then, Christen hears the crash of a door being broken down.
And then, all hell breaks loose.
__
Christen sighs peacefully, finally walking into the hotel room she was supposed to be staying in the whole week.
The past 12 hours had been exhausting, from the moment both the CIA and Interpol raided the building where Ellis and Ivanov had been holding all of them, through the incredibly long debriefings that followed.
She hadn’t seen Tobin since they took her away to have her medically cleared. She hadn’t seen Allie or Ashlyn since they were all separated to give their statements.
Christen had known exactly what she was doing when she remoted into the Teeter servers, triggering the failsafe alarms. She knew it would send an exact signal ping, revealing the geographic location of the IP address of the device being used to remote in. The only wildcard was how much Ellis and Ivanov were bouncing their location - turns out, not enough.
She knew the government would jump on top of a remote in, and she prayed that they would be organized enough to realize there was already a team deployed to the situation, and they would be able to make sense of what was happening.
It took three male agents looking at her like she was insane before Special Agent Dunn finally believed her and ran her story. Agent Dunn confirmed her identity, her rights and permissions to access the servers, and that the CIA team assigned to her protection had been assigned because of the mounting threat of Ivanov and Ellis.
Essentially, it took Dunn about 45 minutes to confirm Christen’s entire story, when it had taken 2 hours for the other agents to even believe that she was the one who had set off the system alarm.
Typical.
She had been released with Ali and driven back to the hotel where they find themselves now, being told they need to stay another 24 hours in Manchester before they can fly (charter) back to the States.
Which both Christen and Ali are fine with, because they still haven’t heard from Tobin or Ashlyn.
“I’m gonna go shower.” Ali says, leaning half of her body around the shared suite door between their rooms. “Let me know if you hear anything.”
Christen smiles at her long-time friend before looking down to her hands in her lap. “Yeah… of course.”
“Hey.”
Christen looks back up at Ali.
“They’re going to come to us as soon as the CIA releases them. They probably just have a shit-ton of paperwork to fill out.” Ali says, always knowing exactly what to say when Christen needs a little reassurance.
She nods, smiling again as Ali closes their adjoining door and heads for her bathroom.
It’s quiet for a while, as Christen lays on her bed, her eyes closed as she rests for the first time in days.
Until a soft knock on her door pulls her out of her meditative state, and she’s rising and making her way to the door.
Her heart pumps a little bit faster at the sight of Tobin when she looks through the peephole, standing on the other side of the door. She opens it, taking in a very tired and very beaten down Tobin.
“Uh, hi.” Tobin smiles timidly. “I, uh. Allie told me you guys were back here and I just wanted to check in on you—“
Christen cuts off her short ramble by gently grabbing either side of her face and pulling her in for a kiss. It’s short and sweet, but oh so powerful.
They pull back, but just enough for Christen to speak softly against Tobin’s lips. “I’m glad you came by.” Both her and Tobin are grinning from ear to ear now, their foreheads resting on each other’s. Until they’re brought out of their little moment by the elevator dinging. They pull back, laughing, as Christen grabs Tobin’s hand and pulls her into the hotel room.
“Are you… ok?” Christen asks hesitantly as Tobin sits across from her on the king-sized bed in the room. “They… they hurt you pretty badly and I’m so sorry, I—“
“Hey, don’t apologize. None of this was your fault, Chris.” Tobin cuts her off, grabbing her hand in her own. “And I’m fine.” She smiles, “Nothing but a few bruises.”
“Promise?” Christen whispers.
“Promise.” Tobin responds, leaning forward and giving Christen a light kiss.
Well, what was intended to be a light kiss, but turns quickly into a heated makeout session.
After several minutes, Tobin pulls back and situates herself across from Christen, keeping their hands together.
Christen can feel the hesitancy on Tobin’s part to say whatever it is she wants to say, so she broaches a conversation just to get her talking. “So, how was everything when you left? They told us to stay for at least 24 hours before we can head back to the States.”
“Yeah. I think they have everything they need to move forward with extraditing Ellis and Ivanov.” Tobin nods, still not looking at Christen. “You guys should be good to leave tomorrow.”
Christen hums in response, not sure what to make of Tobin’s quiet attitude at the moment.
But Christen has been through enough the past few days that the sudden outburst of courage doesn’t even surprise her at this point. “Is everything ok, Tobin? You’re acting like you want to say something, but you’re not saying anything.”
Tobin finally looks up at Christen with a look of shock and wonder on her face. And then she slowly starts to smile, which turns to a giggle, which turns to a full laugh.
Christen wants to laugh with her, but she isn’t sure that Tobin isn’t laughing at her.
“Tobes?”
“I’m sorry.” Tobin manages to get out, trying to get her laughing under control. “I’m just freaking out about how to talk to you, and you totally called me out on it.” She says, her laughter dying out some.
“Ok… and that’s… hilarious?” Christen asks, smiling some now.
“No, its…” Tobin starts, still smiling, but a look of wistfulness on her face as well. “It’s serendipitous.”
“Aaaand you lost me.”
Tobin throws her head back with a laugh. “I came here to check on you, that’s true. But I also came here to talk to you about… us.” She finally manages to get out.
Christen was only partially smiling before, but now that blossoms into a full smile, of which Christen has no control over. “Us?”
“Yeah… us.” Tobin smiles in return. “I… I um… Well, I don’t know how you feel about there being an ‘us’ but I’m… I’m kind of a fan of the idea of… us.”
“A fan of the idea?” Christen asks, smiling growing wider.
“It’s kind of all I can think about.” Tobin whispers, comically.
“Me too.” Christen whispers in response.
But reality seeps into her brain and before she can say anything else, the smile is dropping from her face, and her fears are surging to the surface. “But your job.”
“My job?” Tobin asks, leaning back to try to look into Christen’s eyes.
“You can’t exactly have a normal life with your job, Tobin.” Christen groans. “I’m still not even sure if I believe that your name is ‘Tobin.” Christen drops her head to the bed.
“Wait… what? Of course that’s my name.” Tobin assures. “Where is all this coming from?”
“Tmhf dkmr remmphms phm mp bmran” Christen says, but into the pillow her head is on.
“…..Come again?”
Christen lifts her head with a groan, leaning on her elbow, “The dark recesses of my brain.” She whispers.
“Ok… I don’t know a lot about the dark recesses of your brain, but for now, let’s leave there and not come back, yeah?” Tobin jokes, trying to get Christen to leave her head up and listen to her. “That’s actually a really good point, and I have something really important to tell you about it.”
Christen sits up all the way at this, so she’s completely facing Tobin now. “Yeah?” She whispers. The back of her mind is telling her that Tobin is about to confirm her worst fears: it’s all a lie, it’s always been a lie. She doesn’t like her, could never love her.
But that’s not what happens.
“I’m getting out.” Tobin says, her small grin blooming into a large smile.
“…..Come again?” Christen repeats what Tobin had said to her before, a small grin appearing on her own face and racing to match the smile on Tobin’s.
“I’m getting out; I started the paperwork before I came here. I’ve been wanting to for a while, but I never had a reason.” Tobin explains, leaning closer. “Not until now. Not until you.”
Christen is fully smiling now, and she reaches over and pulls Tobin into a bone-crushing hug. They stay there, in that embrace, for several minutes before Christen pulls back and looks directly into Tobin’s eyes. “So, what now?”
“Now?” Tobin asks, laughing a little. She ponders the question for a few seconds before looking back to Christen with a self-satisfied smirk. “Christen Press, will you go on a date with me?”
“Maybe one without gunfire?”
__
Christen hears the knock on the door, lifting her head to see Ali coming in with a stack of papers in her hands.
“Please tell me those aren’t what I think they are.” Christen groans, sitting back in her chair at her desk. She’s always found her sky rise corner office to be both homey and presidential at the same time, the view overlooking downtown L.A., impossible to beat. But when Ali brings her merger paperwork (ie - paperwork from hell), she finds the office to be more of a prison.
“You’re the one that ‘loves a good takeover’ so, don’t blame me.” Ali laughs, setting the stack down on the corner of the desk. “We still on for that triple date tonight?”
“Assuming this paperwork doesn’t consume me, yes.” Christen says which a cheeky grin. “I’ve been dying to try that new Japanese steakhouse on Butler.”
“Mmm, Japanese does sound really good. Ok, I’ll leave you to this.” Ali gestures vaguely at the mountain next to the desk. “If you’re not out of here by 5pm, I’m sending in the secret weapon!” She hollers over her shoulder as she walks out the door.
Christen can only laugh at her best friend.
The next time Christen hears the door, it’s not a knock, but the sound of it opening and shutting.
“There is no way it’s after 5pm.” Christen states without taking her eyes off of the paper in her hands. She knows who it is since there’s only one person with unlimited access to the office besides her.
“Baby, there’s a clock on the wall and your phone next to your hand.” Tobin says, walking around the desk to come stand behind the woman sitting there.
“Dammit Ali, 5 minutes? Really?” Christen groans seeing it is indeed 5:05pm, her head falling back to Tobin’s stomach behind her, Tobin’s hands now massaging her back.
“She told you 5pm.”
“She doesn’t actually control my schedule, Tobes.” Christen retorts, but there’s no bite in it, because Tobin’s hands feel too good.
“Eh, that’s debatable.” Tobin laughs. “Ok, let’s go, Boss. I’m hungry, and someone said Japanese?”
Christen moves to stand, quickly organizing her papers so she knows where she left off when she comes in tomorrow morning. She grabs her purse and moves around her desk, taking Tobin’s hand as they exit her office and walk down to the elevator. “Did Ashlyn and Ali already leave?” She asks, as they descend from the top floor of the building.
“Yeah, they’re heading to make our reservation.” Tobin reassures, squeezing Christen’s hand in her own.
They exit the elevator, walking past the evening security officer who greets them and wishes them a good evening. “Have a great evening Mrs. Press-Heath. Oh, and Tobin, John said he wants to meet with you first thing tomorrow about the back door problem. Said to let you know when I saw you.”
“Thanks, James. Sounds good.” Tobin says with a wave as they exit the building and head to the parking garage.
“Back door problem?” Christen asks as they reach their car, Tobin opening her door and promptly shutting her in before rounding the vehicle and getting in herself.
“Minor problem. Sensor issue with the alarm, nothing this Head of Security can’t handle.” Tobin responds with a smile, as she starts the Audi, pulling out of the garage and onto the street. “You saw Allie today, right? She give any indication as to who she’s bringing to this triple-date dinner?”
Christen can only smile as she thinks back to the quick meeting she’d had with her new Project Manager. “Just that his name is Bati and we had better be nice.”
“Mmm, she gave me shit for 6 months when we were first dating, I am making no promises.” Tobin says, grinning like a child when Christen slaps her on the arm.
“She did give you shit, didn’t she?” Christen laughs, thinking back to how many times Allie would pop up randomly at events or just wherever they were while she was still in the CIA. She’d go on and on about how proud of Tobin she was before Tobin would have enough and tell her to shut up. “Hey, it worked out didn’t it.”
And Tobin pauses and thinks for a minute. She thinks about how two years ago, she had a life-changing mission assigned to her. She met the love of her life, she got out of the CIA. She settled down, got a normal job, got married. She watched Ashlyn struggle to balance CIA life with a real relationship, soon following in Tobin’s footsteps. Now, Ashlyn works for her. She watched Allie continue on without them for a while longer, but ultimately deciding to also leave the spy-life behind. And she thanks Christen every day for being ready with a job offer on day one of normal life.
Now, they all work together. No guns, no spying. Just the largest technology company in the world.
Casual.
“Yeah… I’d say it all worked out.”