Never Left Behind Chapter One
Title: Never Left Behind
Fandoms: Inception, Burn Notice
Pairings: Ariadne/Yusuf, Michael/Fiona, Arthur/Eames pre-slash (sorry, guys), Michael/Arthur friendship
Rating: PG-13 for now, it it goes up it will be for language or maybe violence
Author's Note: First chapter is ridiculously short, I plan on making the other ones longer. Also, fill for this Round 13 kink meme prompt (too long to quote it).
Summary: The team is hired for a simple job that becomes complicated when an old friend of Arthur's turns out to be working the same case from the other side. Now they have to figure out which one of their clients is lying, or if they both need the services they've paid for. But when one of their number is the subject of a very questionable recruitment, that's the least of their problems.
Chapter One - Familiar Faces: “Wait, so her ex-husband kidnapped their daughter and hid her away, and then made it look like a runaway? That seems... excessive, doesn't it?” Ariadne asks, frowning at the rest of them. Eames, leaning against his workstation, shrugs.
“Well, it doesn't matter if he really did or not. Ms. Rachel Barnes is paying us to find out for sure if he did or not, and if he did, where it is he's put her. If not, we still get the paycheck, and Ms. Barnes moves on to her next lead. Hopefully with the ex-husband working with her, since it's their daughter in trouble.”
Arthur can't help a surprised glance in Eames' direction at his last comment, earning him a dark look. “I'm not heartless, Arthur, and she's just a kid,” the forger says icily.
“Never said you were,” Arthur says mildly. He's just surprised Eames is willing to admit to it aloud. Of course, he's right. Kelly Barnes-Maddow is a kid, only fourteen years old. The thing is, she's threatened to run away multiple times, and Arthur actually doubts that the father had anything to do with it. He's been following the guy, and he just... It doesn't feel right.
Arthur cultivates the image of a man who relies entirely on logic because he is a point man. It's his job to be reliable, unflappable. His job doesn't leave room for flights of fancy or creative interpretation, though some ridiculous feats of ingenuity are occasionally required when trying to outwit projections. But no one lives as long as he has in a dangerous field without some kind of gut instinct, and he has that. More accurately, he has a prickling feeling at the nape of his neck which usually only asserts itself when shit is about to hit the fucking fan.
He distinctly remembers having to stop himself from rubbing the feeling away during pretty much the entire Fischer job. It's not as strong, but there. And then he looks at one of the photos that the PI Ms. Barnes hired before she found out about them, and he knows exactly why he's been feeling so edgy. Kevin Maddow, who looks like nothing more than a parent just as worried as his ex-wife is, is talking to a man who Arthur knows very, very well.
He keeps his face calm as he looks at the slightly blurry image of Michael Westen and a woman he doesn't know speaking with Maddow, and wonders just what's going on. Last he knew Michael was a CIA agent, and the woman with him... She doesn't seem like his partner. Eames is the one who reads people best, their motivations and so on, but Arthur's been reading body language since he was a child, one side effect of being painfully shy when he was small. He couldn't participate, so he watched.
The way Michael and the woman stand isn't that of official partners, but they're not strangers either. He'd have to see them in person to know more. But just this one photograph told him that there were going to be problems. Unless, of course, he managed to nip them in the bud before anything went wrong.
“I'm going to tail Maddow for a while,” he says, standing up from his desk and reaching for his sunglasses, slipping them on. The gesture would be an obvious attempt to hide his eyes if he wasn't about to head into Miami sunlight, which is part of why he says where he's going right away. Ariadne and Yusuf don't even acknowledge him, too lost in building models and refining compounds, respectively, but Eames glances up from his own photos and notes.
“Everything all right, Arthur?”
Arthur's not sure what in his voice or behavior tipped Eames off - as noted, he can read people well but Eames picks up cues he can't even understand - but he offers an easy smile. “No, I guess I'm just sick of being in one spot and tailing this guy might give me a chance to at least look at different scenery.”
He heads out before there can be any more questions asked, but he has a feeling he's only put that off, not stopped it. Which is unfortunate, really, but it can't be helped.
~ ~ ~
Arthur isn't sure what else he can do but stake out Maddow's house, because he doesn't know where Michael lives. His former commanding officer and friend is from Miami, but Arthur knows there's no way in Hell Michael's living with his mother. The thing is, last Arthur knew, Michael was CIA, so what's he doing involved in all this? It's a question Arthur wants answered, because...
Well. The squad was his first real family, more or less. He'd had his father, growing up, but his squad was the first time he'd been part of something and felt like he absolutely belonged there. He would have died for those guys, and he doesn't doubt that he still would. No one should need to die over this, but he doesn't want Michael to be his enemy. That just feels wrong on a visceral level.
As he sits in the car, he has his laptop out, and his fingers fly over the keys, letting him slip past firewalls and security measures. He's good enough, and there are just enough people who are loose-lipped enough, that he manages to get a partial answer to his question. Michael was burned. Arthur can't believe it, because he knows how much Michael loved being a spy. He also knows, with the certainty that can only come from standing back to back with someone, that Michael wouldn't betray his country. It just doesn't compute.
It's not easy to sneak up on Arthur. Years in the military made him cautious, and his time as a point man has made him extremely observant and sometimes almost paranoid. But right now he's shocked by the fate of his old friend, enough so that he stops watching, all his focus turning to his computer as he tries to figure out exactly how this could have happened. That's why he doesn't notice the woman walking toward his car until a tap on his window makes him look up - and he's staring through the glass, down the barrel of her gun.
Fandoms: Inception, Burn Notice
Pairings: Ariadne/Yusuf, Michael/Fiona, Arthur/Eames pre-slash (sorry, guys), Michael/Arthur friendship
Rating: PG-13 for now, it it goes up it will be for language or maybe violence
Author's Note: First chapter is ridiculously short, I plan on making the other ones longer. Also, fill for this Round 13 kink meme prompt (too long to quote it).
Summary: The team is hired for a simple job that becomes complicated when an old friend of Arthur's turns out to be working the same case from the other side. Now they have to figure out which one of their clients is lying, or if they both need the services they've paid for. But when one of their number is the subject of a very questionable recruitment, that's the least of their problems.
Chapter One - Familiar Faces: “Wait, so her ex-husband kidnapped their daughter and hid her away, and then made it look like a runaway? That seems... excessive, doesn't it?” Ariadne asks, frowning at the rest of them. Eames, leaning against his workstation, shrugs.
“Well, it doesn't matter if he really did or not. Ms. Rachel Barnes is paying us to find out for sure if he did or not, and if he did, where it is he's put her. If not, we still get the paycheck, and Ms. Barnes moves on to her next lead. Hopefully with the ex-husband working with her, since it's their daughter in trouble.”
Arthur can't help a surprised glance in Eames' direction at his last comment, earning him a dark look. “I'm not heartless, Arthur, and she's just a kid,” the forger says icily.
“Never said you were,” Arthur says mildly. He's just surprised Eames is willing to admit to it aloud. Of course, he's right. Kelly Barnes-Maddow is a kid, only fourteen years old. The thing is, she's threatened to run away multiple times, and Arthur actually doubts that the father had anything to do with it. He's been following the guy, and he just... It doesn't feel right.
Arthur cultivates the image of a man who relies entirely on logic because he is a point man. It's his job to be reliable, unflappable. His job doesn't leave room for flights of fancy or creative interpretation, though some ridiculous feats of ingenuity are occasionally required when trying to outwit projections. But no one lives as long as he has in a dangerous field without some kind of gut instinct, and he has that. More accurately, he has a prickling feeling at the nape of his neck which usually only asserts itself when shit is about to hit the fucking fan.
He distinctly remembers having to stop himself from rubbing the feeling away during pretty much the entire Fischer job. It's not as strong, but there. And then he looks at one of the photos that the PI Ms. Barnes hired before she found out about them, and he knows exactly why he's been feeling so edgy. Kevin Maddow, who looks like nothing more than a parent just as worried as his ex-wife is, is talking to a man who Arthur knows very, very well.
He keeps his face calm as he looks at the slightly blurry image of Michael Westen and a woman he doesn't know speaking with Maddow, and wonders just what's going on. Last he knew Michael was a CIA agent, and the woman with him... She doesn't seem like his partner. Eames is the one who reads people best, their motivations and so on, but Arthur's been reading body language since he was a child, one side effect of being painfully shy when he was small. He couldn't participate, so he watched.
The way Michael and the woman stand isn't that of official partners, but they're not strangers either. He'd have to see them in person to know more. But just this one photograph told him that there were going to be problems. Unless, of course, he managed to nip them in the bud before anything went wrong.
“I'm going to tail Maddow for a while,” he says, standing up from his desk and reaching for his sunglasses, slipping them on. The gesture would be an obvious attempt to hide his eyes if he wasn't about to head into Miami sunlight, which is part of why he says where he's going right away. Ariadne and Yusuf don't even acknowledge him, too lost in building models and refining compounds, respectively, but Eames glances up from his own photos and notes.
“Everything all right, Arthur?”
Arthur's not sure what in his voice or behavior tipped Eames off - as noted, he can read people well but Eames picks up cues he can't even understand - but he offers an easy smile. “No, I guess I'm just sick of being in one spot and tailing this guy might give me a chance to at least look at different scenery.”
He heads out before there can be any more questions asked, but he has a feeling he's only put that off, not stopped it. Which is unfortunate, really, but it can't be helped.
~ ~ ~
Arthur isn't sure what else he can do but stake out Maddow's house, because he doesn't know where Michael lives. His former commanding officer and friend is from Miami, but Arthur knows there's no way in Hell Michael's living with his mother. The thing is, last Arthur knew, Michael was CIA, so what's he doing involved in all this? It's a question Arthur wants answered, because...
Well. The squad was his first real family, more or less. He'd had his father, growing up, but his squad was the first time he'd been part of something and felt like he absolutely belonged there. He would have died for those guys, and he doesn't doubt that he still would. No one should need to die over this, but he doesn't want Michael to be his enemy. That just feels wrong on a visceral level.
As he sits in the car, he has his laptop out, and his fingers fly over the keys, letting him slip past firewalls and security measures. He's good enough, and there are just enough people who are loose-lipped enough, that he manages to get a partial answer to his question. Michael was burned. Arthur can't believe it, because he knows how much Michael loved being a spy. He also knows, with the certainty that can only come from standing back to back with someone, that Michael wouldn't betray his country. It just doesn't compute.
It's not easy to sneak up on Arthur. Years in the military made him cautious, and his time as a point man has made him extremely observant and sometimes almost paranoid. But right now he's shocked by the fate of his old friend, enough so that he stops watching, all his focus turning to his computer as he tries to figure out exactly how this could have happened. That's why he doesn't notice the woman walking toward his car until a tap on his window makes him look up - and he's staring through the glass, down the barrel of her gun.