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2023-09-13
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2023-09-29
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Duty and Desire

Summary:

FBI Special Agent Amrohi is sent to the Middle East to help with interrogations. Death threats are issued and soon she goes from being safe to needing constant protection. What happens when Marine Security Guard Manuelos meets the unstoppable force that is Agent Amrohi? Just how easy is it to do your duty when it intersects with desire?

AKA

The Bodyguard AU

Chapter 1: The Threat

Notes:

*hits the top of the monitor* this baby will fit so much made up shit about one throwaway line from the show.

I just want to write a quick little AU fic, so hopefully everyone enjoys it.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

 

 

//

Breaking Through the Barriers

//

 

“You can’t stop what is about to come.” The man sitting across the table from FBI Special Agent Amrohi in the interrogation room told the small woman with confidence.

“We are already victorious.” He sits up straighter and smiles widely at her. It’s a gloating smile that infuriates Cruz. She wants to walk over to the table and smash his face into it. Use some of the things she learned in SERE to get the man to talk.

Special Agent Amrohi, or “Please, call me Aaliyah… this way I don’t have to call you Marine Security Guard Manuelos every time I want to say hi.” As she had introduced herself to Cruz, had already admonished her for breaking protocol in the interrogation room enacting that same fantasy before.

The withering glare and command to get out of the room until she could control herself had surprised them both. Except, the man in the chair had recovered faster than she had.

Ten hours ago, she had reacted without thinking.

After half an hour of pacing in the small hallway. Of fuming at the way he had laughed as the door had been closed in her face by a woman that had the audacity to apologize to a terrorist.

Alleged terrorist.

It had been nearly impossible to knock on the door and sheepishly ask to Special Agent Amrohi outside.

 

“You bet your ass you’re sorry. This man didn’t get to be a right-hand man to al-Zawahiri because he is stupid or can be easily intimidated. What you did just cost us hours of work…” Aaliyah emphasized this with a finger held up to Cruz’s face.

Her body was so close to hers that she could feel the warmth of her body. Even in the chilled, artificial air of the hallway.

“I didn’t think.” Cruz admitted.

“Which is surprising for someone like you. Not to think… and yet here you are… proving to him that we are acting out of fear, instead of knowledge…” Aaliyah sounded disappointed.

She sighed.

“Cruz, you just showed him that we are desperate to get information out of him. That all he has to do is get you mad enough to accidentally kill him before he can reveal any useful information. You turned this conversation into a race. If we run out of time, men and women lose their lives because of us. We will be responsible for that. And you, more than me, knows exactly what paying that price looks like.” Aaliyah added, her eyes sad. Pleading.

 

Cruz clenches her jaw and looks away.

 

“Now. If you can’t go back in there and put on a fake smile and make that man believe in your sincerest apology for what happened… I can’t have you in that room with me.” Aaliyah’s ultimatum is soft. Pleading. Begging Cruz to give in.

 

“I’m sorry.” Cruz apologizes. Fingers reaching out. Grazing Aaliyah’s own for a second.

“Sorry.” Cruz says again as she tries to regain control of herself.

 

Aaliyah smiles at her.

Tired.

“Thank you.”

 

//

 

Cruz knew a woman like Aaliyah wouldn’t give her a second chance before removing her from the room again.

 

Even if it meant compromising her own safety with a dangerous alleged terrorist.

Instead of doing what she was trained to do.

Subdue threats.

Cruz did what Aaliyah had told her to do.

She looked bored. Smiling widely whenever the man turned towards her to see if she would react to what he said in English. Not knowing she understood Arabic as well as Aaliyah did.

Cruz pretended to be confused whenever he shut her out of the conversation with Aaliyah by speaking Arabic. She finished the tea in her cup and tried not to grind her teeth with anger.

 

Aaliyah was smiling at the man now. In that same bright smile that gave him nothing.

She looked like a sorority girl trying to sweet talk her way into a club she was too young to get into.

“You’ll find that you have greatly underestimated America… but tell me, why do you think you are already victorious when you are still our guest?” She asked.

Cruz wanted to scoff and roll her eyes. She hated how this woman always called them guests and treated them nicely.

Special Agent Amrohi would pour them tea and discuss different hadiths with them. Talked about the Quaran in perfectly lyrical Arabic. Agent Amrohi showed that sometimes she knew what the Prophet actually said, instead of what others wrote down and claimed he said, better than the men sitting before her.

 

It grated on Cruz when the twelve hours they had spent in this room seemingly yielded nothing.

That their time would expire before the intelligence would go from actionable to another regrettable loss of life.

 

Same way it had in Pakistan.

 

//

//

 

Once upon a time, Cruz had been on the other side of that equation. She had been military intelligence. Cruz was part of a Force Recon team that was good at their jobs.

They captured high level targets and brought them in for questioning.

They stopped good men and women from losing friends. Losing their own lives.

Cruz had ensured not just her team, but countless others in the forces were able to live another day.

Fight another battle.

 

Until Pakistan happened.

Until a man detonated himself before they could stop him.

Cruz didn’t know that there were two entrances.

It had cost Cruz her entire unit.

 

After months in a hospital bed and some PT, she was given the choice to go back to the desert. Finish what she started.

Cruz didn’t want to wrap up her grief in a cloak of vengeance. To lose herself to the violence that turned good men and women out there into shells of their former selves.

She chose the other door.

A flight to the US and a year of training later brought her back to the middle east.

 

This time, she was here, in Yemen.

Her new job meant she was responsible for the prevention of the compromise of classified U.S. government information. And to protect U.S. diplomatic missions and personnel abroad.

 

Even those with insufferably green eyes and bright smiles.

 

Personnel like Special Agent Amrohi, who was too quick to laugh and share cat memes via email. Cruz was glad she wouldn’t be alive to see the declassification of Aaliyah’s emails.

 

Special Agent Amrohi was the type of person who would start off her day by rattling off Cruz’s horoscope from the back of the newspaper as they drove from Aaliyah’s hotel to the prison.

“I thought astrology was like ham or something in Islam.” Cruz asked, confused the first time Aaliyah greeted her like that in the morning.

Soft, melodic laughter filled the car. “What do you know about Islam and haram?”

Aaliyah laughed as she shoved Cruz’s shoulder back and smiled. “I thought you were too Catholic to know what us infidels think about horoscopes.”

Cruz had blushed and shrugged.

Aaliyah smiled again and smacked Cruz’s thigh with her fingers.

“Stop it. You just don’t want to know what love has in store for you… but I see you Marine Security Guard Manuelos… I see you… I know that just like me, you’re only here to find yourself a husband… national security be damned.” Aaliyah had winked at her and laughed before she began reading the horoscope for the day.

 

 

//

//

Aaliyah, the woman that wore too much pink and gold. Who shrieked in excitement whenever she found her favorite brand of tea at the market.

That Aaliyah was very different from Special Agent Amrohi.

Special Agent Amrohi was a small woman that was polite to terrorists and smiled at them like they were her uncles.

Often pretending to slip up and talk about fashion instead of what she really wanted to know.

Disarming them with how Arab she was, complaining about the lack of good tea in the city. Reminding them of their daughters, instead of being the brutish American they expected to torture them.

They would ask, confused by her, if she was really American. If they hadn’t just kidnapped a Prince’s daughter to play the part of an agent while the real men would question them later. With electricity, water, and hunger.

Aaliyah would play the part. She would act flattered and turn their own ignorance about her to her advantage.

 

The men across the interrogation table, just like the men and women on base would underestimate Aaliyah.

They all believed the joke, that she was only here to find a husband.

They bought the rumors that she really was a Prince’s daughter, and she was only here temporarily.

 

Cruz would have thought the same, if she had not spent thousands of hours locked in the same room with her.

If she didn’t see the way Aaliyah would spring her trap as soon as the men faltered. As soon as the lies were unmasked.

 

Just like this man.

 

He shrugged as Aaliyah poured him another cup of tea and placed two sugar cubes on the saucer before placing the hot drink in front of him.

Already knowing how he liked his tea.

Treating this like a social visit.

 

The man reached out, placed a cube of sugar between his teeth and took a sip of tea.

He smiled at Aaliyah and Cruz saw a small flicker of sadness.

Aaliyah saw something else.

It was at that moment that Aaliyah knew they had won.

Even when the interrogation would last for seven more hours. It was that moment when he broke.

Not under torture.

Under kindness.

 

The rest of the time was spent listening to dates and aliases. Plans and cities. Targets.

Intel that the man had been counting on to weaken the American government was suddenly flowing out of him.

 

He had been good.

He had been trained well.

He would have happily died while being waterboarded.

Could have withstood it without breaking.

Hundreds of others had done it and they were lower on the totem pole than him.

 

Except, they weren’t instructed on what to do when meeting someone like Aaliyah.

 

And now, they had more actionable intelligence from one conversation, one person, than other agents had gotten from an entire year of trying to come after them with beatings and shouting.

 

//

 

With the interrogation over, Cruz had settled in for a long night of being bored while Aaliyah typed up reports throughout the night.

She needed to flag things by level of importance.

Intelligence meant nothing if it wasn’t properly followed through by boots on the ground.

 

“Cruz?” A soft voice wakes her.

“Huh?” She asks, confused. Body aching as she tries to stretch out from a couch that is both too small for her body but too big for the office Aaliyah was assigned to.

Aaliyah yawns into the back of her hand and gives her a sleepy smile.

“Ready to get out of here?” Aaliyah asks.

Cruz is stretching her back as Aaliyah tries to rush her along. “Come on, hurry up. I have a really uncomfortable bed waiting for me and I’m sure your metal cot at the embassy is calling your name too.”

 

The drive to Aaliyah’s hotel goes by faster without the usual traffic and vendors weaving in and out of the lanes to sell their wares.

 

Cruz places a hand on Aaliyah’s shoulder. “Hey, we’re here.”

Aaliyah frowns. Eyes still closed. “Okay.” She says in tone that tells Cruz she’s almost asleep again.

Cruz blinks the sleep away from her eyes and clicks both their seatbelts off. She gets out of the car and walks to the passenger door. She opens it slowly, easily catching Aaliyah’s tired body in her arms.

“Come on, we only have a couple of hours to sleep before you have to debrief everyone in the morning.” She tries again. Not really wanting Aaliyah to walk inside the lobby.

“What if you just carry me inside and I sleep for an entire day? No debrief, no walking, just sleep.” Aaliyah complains into her uniform.

Cruz laughs deeply at this. “I already told you, I’m not going to carry you around the desert just because you broke a heel or whatever.”

“I already told you; these aren’t heels.” Aaliyah complains as she yawns.

“Heels or not, you need to go inside. I can’t get you coffee if I’m stuck here.” She tries a new tactic.

“But that means you stay here, so maybe today is the day I quit coffee.” Aaliyah grumbles.

Cruz laughs and runs her hand down Aaliyah’s back. “Come on, you need to go inside.”

Aaliyah yawns and nods. She steps back and looks up at Cruz.

“Thank you. For driving me home and for…you know.” Aaliyah points towards the prison’s general direction.

“I’m sorry I set you back hours. I… I don’t know what I’m doing in there and I’m so mad at how those assholes lie to us all day and just enjoy it… if I hadn’t broken his nose… maybe he would have said more…” Cruz looks away. Frowning.

“Hey, it’s okay, we got the intel. It will make a difference. That’s all that matters.” Aaliyah tells her, turning Cruz’s face towards her own.

“Yeah.” Cruz replies. She looks down at Aaliyah’s lips and up at her eyes again.

“Yeah.” She says again.

Aaliyah smiles and leans in. Cruz closes her eyes. Trying not to breathe. A car honks in the distance and she feels a kiss on her cheek.

Her eyes open, confused.

Aaliyah smiles and puts her other hand on Cruz’s face, turning her head to the other side.

Another kiss.

Her chest rises and falls with disappointment.

Aaliyah smiles at her and tells her good night.

Cruz nods and repeats it back to her, sounding a little breathless.

Hands slide down her face. Her neck. And just like that Aaliyah is no longer touching her, but she’s still standing near her.

“I’ll see you in a couple of hours?” Aaliyah asks.

Cruz can only nod.

Aaliyah smiles and walks away. Towards the hotel lobby. She stops as the automatic doors open and she turns back. A small wave.

Cruz’s fingers give her a timid wave back.

 

//

The Woman Behind the Intel

//

 

The leads Agent Amrohi gathered are supposed to followed up by the Yemeni government. The FBI agents running the interrogations are guests. Not allowed to carry their guns in the city, even when being field agents.

Those were stored in the embassy armory.

It was why Cruz spent a lot of time around Aaliyah.

The other special agents liked her well enough, but they mostly ignored her. Aaliyah was younger than them and an actual former sorority girl and beauty queen. Making it harder to find common ground with men who came from different law enforcement agencies.

At first Aaliyah still tried to connect with the other agents on her team. With the marines Cruz had worked with for years.

They were intimidated by her intelligence and gave her a wide berth. Unused to women who looked like her but didn’t automatically fall at their feet because she had a PhD in Islamic Studies from Yale and wanted to discuss how amazing it was to be so close to the Cradle of Civilization and how she was saving up her time-off for a trip to the British Museum so she could see the Gilgamesh tablets there.

The men started tuning her out.

Not Cruz.

She might not have gone to college, but she liked learning things. Putting together puzzles. Figuring out how shit worked. It was soothing.

It was why she had been in intelligence. Why she was now trying to stop classified U.S. government information from becoming compromised by protecting those that gathered it.

She thought they all were here because of the same reason.

Turns out, not everyone cared to learn more than they needed to.

They had standards to meet and drills to run. Who cares about learning anything beyond that?

 

“Excuse me, Special Agent Amrohi.” Cruz had asked after the other agents turned away, laughing about how no one cared about some shitty tablets unless they got wi-fi.

She saw the way Aaliyah plastered on a fake smile to cover up how her face had fallen at the comments.

“Yes, Marine Security Guard Manuelos?” Aaliyah teased her in a watery voice.

“What’s Gilgamesh tablets?” Cruz asked, genuinely curious.

The gasp that followed and the excited way that Aaliyah latched onto her arm as she went on an enthusiastic explanation about the importance of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Cuneiform, and how it all related to modern Abrahamic religions as well as ancient ones made Cruz blush. And for once, feel proud that she didn’t really know a lot of stuff.

Not knowing meant she could ask Special Agent Amrohi questions about things she had trouble understanding. Those words she didn’t know how to translate because she only had 4 levels of Arabic under her belt, not years.

 

It was why, after a week, Special Agent Amrohi had asked Cruz to call her by her name.

 

Cruz liked spending time with Aaliyah.

Learning from her.

They fell into an easy rhythm.

In a blink of an eye, a year had gone by and they were slowly dismantling a terrorist cell that had led them to Ash-Shams.

 

//

A Credible Threat at the Speed of Bureaucracy

//

 

It had been three weeks and Cruz could sense the mounting frustration felt by each FBI agent as the hours dragged on and no arrests were made.

 

The next day, the Yemeni authorities arrested al-Qamar. A high priority target that Aaliyah had singled out in her reports and profiles.

Except, they didn’t arrest him due to her intel.

They arrested him because he had blown up part of his house.

When they went to check in on him, make sure he was all right, he tried to flee. They threw him on the ground and looked in the parts of his house that were still standing. Trying to see what he was trying to cover up with the explosion.

Instead of a corpse, they found maps that had targets across the city circled on them and enough explosives left to take them down.

The Yemeni authorities blamed the Americans for their mess and soon the CIA was called in to supervise the FBI operation.

 

//

 

Kyle McManus was a grade A douche that loved to flaunt the power his agency let him wield. He paraded around the ways he could bend the rules. Starting by pissing off the Yemeni authorities when he detained suspects from the list without giving the Yemen government time to coordinate anything.

It made them look bad when they kidnapped people off the streets.

The FBI had spent a year building cases against the men within the cell so that they could be tried and found guilty due to the overwhelming amount of evidence and confessions collected via hours of hard work.

Kyle shrugged off their protests as he went forward with his bull in a China shop routine of amassing suspects first and evidence later. “Sorry the FBI bungled this, but it’s why they called the big boys in. We’re here because you can’t send a bunch of paper pushers to do real intelligence gathering work.”

“Agent McManus, there are rules for a reason… you are setting back relations with the Yemenis for short term glory. And alerting the rest of the people everyone in this cell came into contact with that we are onto them… Our focus should be on the intel, not the glory.” Aaliyah had tried to argue.

“Listen, Legally Blonde, it’s not my fault you got lost to the Delta Nu mixer while the rest of us were doing our job. Sucks to suck.” He smirked at Aaliyah as he said this.

“Show some respect, you CIA prick.” Cruz pushed him back and Kyle laughed at her too.

“Nice seeing you on your feet and not on a stretcher, Manuelos.” He pointed out. The light tone shifting to a bit more serious.

“How was the PT?” He asked, clasping her hand in his and pulling her forward to pat her on the back.

Cruz shrugged. “Not as painful as seeing you here.”

Kyle laughed.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Orders from above and all that.” He seemed genuinely apologetic. A welcome change.

 

//

 

Aaliyah wants to go back to doing what she’s good at: interrogations.

Kyle thinks she doesn’t know how to do her job.

Even when it was her intel that got them each name. Each man that was in a prison cell.

He treats her like everyone else does, a joke.

Until another week goes by and suddenly, he wants her input on a suspected terrorist.

 “Hey, Legally Blonde, we have a big terrorist for you to talk to. He’s in interview room three. Take your lap dog with you, you’ll need the backup.” Kyle told her.

Cruz should have stepped in when she heard the glee in his voice.

Except, she knew that Aaliyah could handle herself.

This was her domain.

Aaliyah opens the door, and a boy is handcuffed to the table.

Tears are running down his face and he tries to use his shoulders to wipe away at them, but he’s bent over at an awkward angle and can’t do much but sit there and let the tears fall.

Kyle laughs from down the hall, and she hears him slap Kamal’s hand in a loud high-five that echoes down to them.

Aaliyah leaves the room in a rage and Cruz goes towards the boy.

He shrinks down into himself when he sees her.

She takes off her helmet and sets it down next to her. She’s kneeling in front of him and saying that she wasn’t here to hurt him.

He looks up at her and sniffles.

“Can I take these off?” Cruz asks, pointing to his handcuffs and feeling stupid for forgetting the word for them in Arabic.

The boy nods but doesn’t meet her eyes.

“I’m going to reach for my key. It’s right here on my belt.” Cruz begins to tell him what she’s doing before she does it.

Soon he is uncuffed and wiping angrily at his cheeks.

“Now that she got you out of those cuffs, do you mind if I look at your wrists? They look like they could use some cleaning up.” Aaliyah asks softly while holding up some bandages and a first aid kit.

The boy shakes his head to tell her no. That he doesn’t want that.

“Okay, how about I get us some tea and some candy I hide in my office, would that be okay?” Aaliyah asks and he says yes in a whisper.

 

After talking to the boy for a couple of hours. Aaliyah reassures him that he will go home soon. She apologizes to him, for how her friends treated him. For once, Cruz wants to apologize too.

 

//

 

The minute the boy leaves their sight, Aaliyah goes straight to Kyle.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing by arresting a 10-year-old boy that was cooperating as a witness?” She asks, furious.

“He’s just a fucking kid, what is he going to say? We already caught the bad guys.” He complains.

“That witness just told me that you guys have known for an entire week that my entire team is in danger… we have death threats issued and everyone in the city knows… everyone except us!” She shouts and everyone turns towards their argument.

“Amrohi, who’s in danger?” FBI Special Agent Smith asks.

“We are.” She says, pointing to rooms her team has made their own for the time being.

“Apparently, the CIA failed to tell us that thanks to their heroic work, other cells have put out a hit on us and the witness that came forward… you know, the boy you treated like a criminal, Officer McManus… he told me that two separate men from his village were already on their way here, with improvised vests, to hit our hotel.” Aaliyah finishes.

Voices are raised and everyone is blaming each other about who is holding back intel and if they could really trust what some kid said.

Cruz holds her lower lip and whistles so loud that it cuts through the noise and gets everyone to stare at her.

“Marines, you heard Agent Amrohi. There’s a threat on their lives. Time to move them to another hotel. Let’s go get them packed up and checked out by twenty hundred hours.” Cruz commands and escorts Aaliyah at a hurried pace.

 

//

 

They get settled at a hotel across the city.

Their presence is a bit unsettling to the hotel guests.

They feel unsafe with so many men and women with guns walking around the area.

 

Cruz knocks on Aaliyah’s door before she leaves. Being ordered back after too many calls to the embassy.

Apologizing for not being able to stay.

To keep her safe.

 

Aaliyah is upset about the news but understanding of something like duty calling to Cruz.

Cruz steps closer and rubs the soft fabric of Aaliyah’s pajama top in between her fingertips.

She doesn’t want to go.

Her instincts tell her to stay.

Cruz knows the danger is real, even if everyone else is treating it like a joke. A vacation they can expense to the American taxpayers.

“Call me if you need anything?” Cruz asks. Torn between her orders and her need to remain standing outside of Aaliyah’s door all night.

Aaliyah smiles up at her and nods.

“Even if you think it’s nothing. You call. Don’t investigate. You call and I’ll make sure it’s nothing.” Cruz tells her. Pulling the fabric towards her body and Aaliyah follows after it. Small step forward.

She rests her hands on Cruz’s shoulders and nods again.

“Believe me, I’m falling asleep with my phone in my hand and you on my speed dial.” Aaliyah tries to make a joke, but it comes out a bit out of breath.

 

//

 

The next morning, Kyle and Kamal insist on riding together with her to pick up Aaliyah for work.

They fight over the radio and talk about their fantasy football league picks.

Cruz nods along. Laughing at the right things without really feeling it.

They’re both nice enough to her, but she can still feel her shoulders tense whenever she thinks about how Kyle treated Aaliyah.

She should let it go.

But she can’t.

 

She stops at a café she hasn’t been to in months. Her brain is on automatic. She orders two coffees.

As soon as they’re in her hands, Cruz knows she should order the boys in the car some coffee too but they’re on her shit list.

She walks away and both men are leaning against the car. Baggy shirts untucked to conceal their weapons.

Kyle raises his hands as she gets closer. “What the fuck, I don’t get a coffee?” He asks.

“Only got two hands.” She answers before taking a swig from her cup. It’s too hot, but he doesn’t know she burned the roof of her mouth.

“Seriously Cruz?’ He asks. Upset.

She shrugs.

Kyle taps Kamal’s chest with the back of his hand and the taller man nods. They cross the street at a half jog and go inside the café.

 

“Let’s stop for breakfast at that place Ali said was good.” Kyle taps her shoulder from the back seat.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to make unnecessary stops right now.” Cruz says. Not really in the mood for two hours of their football banter.

“If you can stop for coffee, you can stop for some fucking pancakes.” Kyle complains.

Kamal nods along. “Yeah, come on Manuelos. We’re starving.”

She sighs. “You guys better be fucking paying.”

 

//

 

The next day, the boys are already leaning against her car in the morning.

They ask to be taken to the same café and restaurant for breakfast.

“No. We have to change up our pattern.” She tells them, like they’re children and not CIA officers.

“Come on, no gives a shit about our routines.” Kyle complained. Treating this entire trip like a vacation instead of a high-level mission.

“No.” Cruz says in a tone that tells him this is final.

 

It had not been final.

 

Kyle had called in a friend while she was getting coffee.

She got a call from her commanding officer, the head of the Marine Security Guard. “Take them to breakfast.”

“Sir.” Cruz tried to protest.

“Sorry Gunny. Nothing personal, but those are my orders and now they’re yours too.” He sighed.

Cruz nodded. Then, realizing he couldn’t see her, she said. “Understood, sir.”

 

//

 

Aaliyah could sense she had been on edge the entire meal and didn’t try to make small talk. She patted Cruz’s thigh in a reassuring manner.

Leaving her hand to rest there after Cruz smiled at her.

Grateful for the support.

The understanding.

 

They listened to the CIA boys talk about the big pot being held back at the prison and compared notes on which players should be in their fantasy picks.

Cruz, frustrated and bored, stared out the window.

She saw a man crouching near her car.

She stood up. Painfully aware at the loss of Aaliyah’s touch. Whose hand dropped to her side.

“What is it?” The other woman asked.

“I thought I saw someone tamper with our car.” She says. Unsure.

The man is no longer there. As if he had vanished.

 

“Manuelos, stop being so fucking paranoid. No one gives a shit about FBI Barbie.” Kyle dismisses her.

“I’m calling it in.” Cruz says. Feeling too awake to let it go now.

“Dude, I’m not going to wait six hours here just so some idiot can tell you the same thing I’m telling you. There’s nothing to worry about.” Kyle gets up and puts some bills on the table.

Kamal gets up and starts to follow Kyle towards the door.

Aaliyah stays seated.

“What should we do?” She asks. Trusting Cruz.

The boys get to the car and Kyle points to his watch while Kamal signals for them to hurry up.

 

Kyle throws his hands up in the air and shouts to her. “Manuelos. Let’s fucking go!”

 

Aaliyah remains where she is.

They wait.

And wait.

 

The line is ringing, and no one is answering her.

 

They wait.

Kyle shouts her name again as he pantomimes checking the car and giving her a big thumbs up.

 

The line is still ringing.

Aaliyah is waiting.

And Cruz doesn’t want to make the wrong decision.

 

Kyle flips her off and pulls out his cellphone.

 

Her phone vibrates in her hand.

It’s the head of the Marine Security Guard. “Gunny, what the fuck is going on out there? Bring god’s favorite idiots back to the fucking prison so I can stop fielding calls from McNamara. Who happens to be a fucking station chief I am not particularly inclined to piss off three times in one fucking day.”

His voice carries so loudly that Aaliyah stands up. Knowing what the answer to her question was.

They would do what Kyle wanted to do. Not what Cruz thought they should do.

 

Cruz hangs up the phone and hears the faint crack of her case cracking under her thumb.

 

They’re waiting for the light to turn red before crossing the street and Cruz sees the same man again.

He didn’t have a beard, which wasn’t weird. Some men liked a more western look.

What was weird, was that the lower half of his face was two shades whiter than the rest of his face and neck.

She looks at Kyle, who reached towards the passenger door handle and back at the man, who nods and smiles before reaching into his pocket.

 

She curls her body around Aaliyah’s turning her back towards the car and before she can say anything, the concussive force of the bomb knocks them both to the ground.

 

 

Notes:

*Take My Breath Away starts playing in the background*