QT UK - Chapter 15 (WIP 3)

I meant to upload this a few days ago, apparently I didn't

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Nia sighed.

Almost as soon as the call had finished however, she was reaching into the folds of her coat. With Jordan no longer watching, her shoulders bunched as she stashed her phone and replaced it with a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. Stress rolled off her in a heavy wave, and she flicked, impatiently at the lighter, frustrated as the first flame was quickly snuffed out by the wind.

“I told her I quit.”

Feeling his own heart rate rise, Ethan leaned forward. One hand reached for hers and lifted the cigarette from her grasp. The other eased around her and drew his partner towards him, kissing her deeply.

There was half a beat where Nia hesitated - and then her mouth pressed back. She drew on him instead of the smoke, bracing herself against his chest and stayed there until a small exhale whispered from her. And although the breath caused her to pull back, Ethan captured her lips again, feeling her relax with each extended piece of contact as the serum thrummed. He knew he had an effect on her, wanted to give her something other than the fleeting hit of nicotine to rely on, but there was something about the way he could practically feel her pulse slow beat by beat that was hard not to marvel at. 

Eventually, her hand settled at his waist and she steadied herself as the last of the weight fell from her, their foreheads leaning together.

“So,” Ethan said, finally breaking the silence with a smile in his voice. “Sugarnips?”

Nia groaned, giving him an embarrassed little shove. “We dated. For a couple of months, before it started to get in the way of things. It was a couple of years ago now, but she still thinks she’s funny.” She met his gaze, turning stern but with a fraction of the genuine tension that had been there moments earlier. “I swear, if that nickname gets so much as breathed to the others…”

“My life won’t be worth living. Got it.”

The small smile she gave him was wry enough to suggest she didn’t entirely believe she wasn’t going to get teased. She sighed, her mind obviously wandering, and Ethan felt the stress beginning to settle back in. Quickly, Nia attempted to change the subject, doing her best to deflect things out and away from herself, but she still surprised Ethan by how genuine her next question sounded.

“How did things go with Aoife?”

Even if Nia was trying to wriggle away from her own anxiety, it was clear she cared; but Ethan saw what she was trying to do, and shook his head at her. “No. You first for a change.” Brown eyes wandered down towards the packet of cigarettes he was still holding, and he reached out to caress her face, reassuringly. “What’s up?”

Nia closed her eyes, leaning into his touch, and kept them closed as she started to reply. “The phrase she used, ‘blue sky thinking.’ It was a code I came up with at Aexasphere whenever we were meeting clients or investors, for if either of us ever wanted to signal to the other that we needed to talk outside the room.”

“...you’re sure that’s what she meant?”

“She wasn’t exactly being subtle.”

It took Ethan a second to find the thread of implications and to begin tugging - and he suddenly wished he’d paid as much attention to Jordan’s body language as he had been to Nia’s. “So, there’s something she wants to tell you that she couldn’t on a call like that? She thought there was a chance you were being listened to.” 

The wind blew again, punctuating his thoughts with a rustle of the nearby plants, and the penny finally dropped as to why Nia was out in the cold rather than using Palisade’s wifi for the call. Jordan wasn’t the only one concerned about how easily someone else might have been listening, although Nia’s reaction suggested that her caution had only just become more concrete. This time, the flicker of anxiety he felt was definitely his own rather than Nia’s. Between the Red and Black codes and what had happened to Alex, there was something Jordan was only willing to discuss with Nia in person; and she was worried that someone in authority was not only involved, but that they also had their attention.

But who? The government? Averna? The thought of either manipulating Delphi left a nasty pit in his stomach.

“Is she safe,” Ethan asked, studying Nia for cracks.

“I know Jordan, she can handle herself - better than I can. And if she thought she was in immediate danger this isn’t how she’d be acting.” For once, it didn’t feel like she was deflecting. “But she’s obviously guarded enough about things that she wants to meet in person.”

“Where’s she based?”

“The Wellcome Institute on Euston Road. It’s where Averna’s been operating since we were established. Close to the people making decisions and it’s letting us stay collaborative with the teams already based there.”

Central London. Ethan knew the building, vaguely, from his own trips to the capital. It belonged to one of the world’s foremost research organisations and the 10 storey glass facade was practically opposite Euston train station, leading him to pass it almost without thought each time he needed to travel to the BBC’s London HQ at Broadcasting House. There were plenty of good reasons to balk at the idea of going, from security and the virus to the job they still had to do, but Ethan looked at Nia and his mind skipped over all of them.

“How soon do you want us to leave?

Nia’s posture straightened, leaning back at first in surprise, only for the arch of her eyebrows to furrow as she retreated behind her professionalism. 

“You know it’s not that simple,” she replied, her tone turning low and clipped; but he could tell that it was for her benefit rather than his, as if she was the one who needed convincing. He met her gaze, and she repeated herself. “It’s not that simple.”

Back, down the slope to the Hall, an engine rumbled as the remaining Special Branch police car rolled out towards the front gate and, as Ethan looked up, his attention lingered on the grey building and the production facilities tucked up tight alongside it.

“Even if I wasn’t determined to find out what happened to Alex, if the idea that might be being covered up didn’t make me…” he started, but paused, realising that wasn’t a feeling he quite had the words for, and didn’t want to dwell on. Instead, he turned all of his attention  back to Nia. “I would still be able to tell what this means to you. If what Jordan’s implying is right, then she’s basically saying that what we think we’re working towards is tainted from the start. And I know that if I leave you to it, you’re going to keep trying to take all of that on your own shoulders until you break. So yes, it really is that simple.”

Nia shifted, breaking eye contact first and fidgeting under what might have felt like half an accusation. For the first time, she didn’t immediately reach to try and fix the mask as it slipped, and the vulnerability as her shoulders dropped seemed to shrink her. 

“But it’s not,” she protested, after a brief hesitation that made Ethan realise he’d never seen her look unsure of herself before. “Even if you set aside Special Branch riding our arses here, we can’t be in two places at once, as much as I’d like to be. And if there is something there that needs to be addressed, if the cost of doing that is Upstart not being ready then people lose either way.” 

There was a pause, in which Ethan could see she was weighing up some other piece of information, and he waited for her to offer it.

“Cooper and I were contacted by Central Government this morning. The Americans are weighing up dates in the middle of next month for going public and cabinet are insistent that they have a version of our broadcast ready for review in advance. We’ve just been given until the 6th to have it prepared for them and it would need to be approved by Averna’s board ahead of that. I can’t see how there’s time for half of us to simply wander down to London in the middle of things.”

Ethan made a face. Nine days. They’d been working to a timetable that suggested the would have a week or two longer than that and while it would be enough time for a regular news broadcast, this was anything but. There was an awareness that every word and frame needed to be agonised over to get as much of the country on board. They could certainly have a script filmed fully and edited by then, but coming up with something much more considered than Farah standing in one of their studios between rushed segments was going to require as many man hours as their small workforce apparently had left, particularly if the executives were going to want their own revisions. 

He did his best to push down the guilty little voice that said his own drama had been time they couldn’t afford, and then the other that demanded he was still going to need to find more of it for Aoife. He also tried to ignore the uncomfortable thought that the people handling those revisions might be the same ones Jordan was suspicious of. Instead, his mind quickly started to grasp at the various pieces they’d already filmed, jumping from one consideration to another as it tried to work out a path that took them to London.

The sensation of Nia’s pulse, racing in his temples, drew him back to her. His partner’s gaze had wandered back to the horizon again and he could only guess which part of things she was thinking about. Instinctively, he moved to reassure her before he’d even managed to reassure himself.

“Leave it with me,” he said, reaching out to catch her attention with a soft brush of his hand through her hair. “The production schedule is part of my job. Let me actually do it. If we need to be in London and not here then I’ll make a way for us to be in London.”

A low, thoughtful hum rolled from Nia, as if she was having to catch a chuckle. “That’s just bluster and you know it.”

Ethan smirked. “Right, and how is that any different to you?”

He half-expected Nia to argue back, but she didn’t, quietly conceding the point. She regarded him, thoughtfully, instead, and lingered until something behind her eyes seemed to turn wistful. Ethan gazed back, taking a moment to appreciate her. The more he saw of her, the more he was beginning to understand her own bluster, and just how much she was pushing herself to try and hold things together through sheer force of will - even at her own expense. 

“Have I told you how incredible you are?”

Ethan’s words pulled Nia out of her own head, with a warm kick of feeling that for once, left her speechless.

“And, I don’t deserve what you did for Aoife,” he continued, with a force of feeling that barely captured a fraction of what that had meant to him. 

For a second, it looked as if she was about to try to turn and shy away from the candor, but he reached out to caress her, and she sighed against the touch. But even in being honest, she tried to underplay her own feelings.

“I told myself that if this was how things were, I’d do whatever it took to make things work for the people I was with.”

Ethan held her. “You know, even if you think you need to fight to prove yourself to other people, you don’t have to for me.”

Nia’s face shifted to one of consternation, and she looked at him as if he’d managed to not understand her at all. 

She leaned forward, capturing his lips in a long soft press. 

“I know. But I want to prove myself to you more than anyone.”