ATTENTION: Stories marked with an * may contain material which would be better appreciated by those over 18. Parental Discretion is advised. This is your responsibility, not ours.


Elysium walked out into the rainy morning air and sighed. Life seemed like a dream to her, lived by someone else. She truly had no life, Section was her life and they had been ignoring her lately, she could not remember the last time she had been on a mission. Musing thus, she was already to the little café where she normally ate in the morning. Today however, she decided to go back to the open air stalls and browse around. As she turned to go, she nearly trampled a young man who had been right behind her.

"Truly sorry" she said as she quickly appraised him: No threat.

"It’s my fault entirely, miss, I shouldn’t have been so close behind you. My name is Dirk Matthews, might I have the pleasure of knowing yours?"

"Armand, Elysia Armand." She said, quickly converting to her cover story. "Call me Lys." She liked this guy, it was obvious he had been following her, but he seemed more interested in getting to know her than the other people she had met. On an impulse she asked, "I was just about to go back and browse the stalls for breakfast instead of eating here, care to join me?"

"Sure, I’d love to," Dirk said in his deep husky voice. He offered her his arm and smiled when she took it.

Arm and arm they walked through the long row of vendors. She bought a pint of raspberries and he blackberries. They strolled back past the café and to a small table. They chatted happily for a long time, thankfully her cell phone never rang. She gave him her cover story of a writer and poet whose rich family paid the rent of her apartment to keep her out of the way.

He was a sculptor and amateur astronomer, but he restored old houses to pay the bills. He gave her a card with his company on it, **Restoring Camelot**.

"Nice name," she smiled. She really liked him. She was coming out of her trance because of him. He represented the real world, a real life. She could use a friend, and he seemed willing to be that and more.

She looked at her watch and realized it was time for her to check in with Section. She exchanged phone numbers with Dirk and waved goodbye. As she walked to one of the many entrances to Section, she didn’t know about the smile playing on her lips, nor the ability it had to make her radiant.

She walked down the Section’s narrow halls. She smiled at the few friends she had there. Operations Specialist Cherokee had nothing for her to do so she went home. Life was empty, except for…

"Where did I put that number?" she mumbled to herself. She searched through all her pockets and finally came up with it. Steeling herself, she dialed the number on the card.

A woman’s voice answered, "Hello, Restoring Camelot, may I help you?"

"Yes," she answered "May I please speak to Dirk Matthews? This is Elysia Armand, I met him in the market this morning."

"One moment, please." Elysium could have sworn she’d heard that voice before.

After a few seconds Dirk’s voice came over the line "Elysia, hi. What’s up?" He sounded cheerful and she could picture his boyish grin over the line.

"I was wondering if you’d like to have breakfast with me tomorrow morning?"

"I’d love to."

"Great, I’ll see you at 7 by the bronze pig?"

"Okay, great, cya there, bye."

"Good bye." She hung up.

************

The next morning she met him right on time. She had dressed especially for this. She wore a long denim skirt, a white linen shirt, and black ankle boots. He ran up a little late. His tie was crooked and he was out of breath.

"I am SO sorry, my alarm clock didn’t wake me up, I slept right through it. I’m so sorry, I apologize." He looked so completely sorry that he had a puppyish quality about him.

She reached out absently to gently flick a lock of his hair from his face. She realized what she was doing and smiled. Was it possible to feel so completely comfortable with someone you had just met? She didn’t know much of love, but from what she’d seen and read, from the looks of it this could be it. She only hoped Section wouldn’t interfere, she’d heard stories of another operative who’d had an out-of-Section romance, and paid the price.

"No trouble, dearie," she said sweetly "now how about breakfast?"

"Right away, madame. " He spoke in a servant’s inflection as he offered her his arm in gallant fashion. They walked together, chatting about their opinions of everything. They concurred on almost every topic, they were open-minded on religion, not expecting everyone to believe as they did.

They agreed politics needed some help, and that a completely new government was needed in many countries. The one place they differed was music. She loved alternative rock and some classical, he adored classical and opera, which she could do well without.

They had a wonderful breakfast together, drawing jealous looks from people who saw how content they were. They talked so long that it was almost noon before they noticed it.

Dirk smiled sheepishly, "I’m sorry to have kept you so late. You must have much to do."

"Don’t worry about it, my dear. One good thing about being a writer is that I have all the time in the world should I choose. And I choose to spend it here."

He smiled at that, and, with a great effort, asked, "Would you like to go to dinner with me tomorrow night?"

"I’d love to."

"Great then, I’ll pick you up at 8?"

"Perfect, I live at…"

"Actually, I know where you live." He looked at his feet. "I have the apartment across the street from you, I saw you yesterday morning with my new telescope. You looked so sad that I felt I had to do something. However, I don’t know the apartment number." He looked considerably embarrassed.

"712," she smiled. How interesting, she wondered if Section knew there was an apartment with a view directly to hers. It could create a possible security problem, were someone to bug her apartment. However, it would mean Dirk would have to move and she didn’t want that. Something about having him keep an eye on her made her feel…secure, safe, wanted. Things she hadn’t truly felt since the death of her parents.

She said "Thank you very much, Dirk. I’ve had more fun in the past two days than I’ve had in two years. I’ll see you at 8 tomorrow night. " She turned to go, blushing faintly, but he caught her hand and pulled her back around towards him.

"I, too, have enjoyed our talks," he said ads he slowly raised her hand to his lips The look on his face said he had more than enjoyed their time together. He kissed her hand, lingering longer than was truly necessary.

He released it suddenly, blushing furiously, and causing her to release a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. "I…am sorry…I didn’t mean…"

She couldn’t move, she had no experience with this sort of thing. What should she do, could she do? She’d been wanted by guys before, that was nothing new, but this man wanted HER. Not her body, though he seemed plenty interested in that as well, but HER, her mind and her soul, parts of her she had had shut off for so long she’d almost forgotten she had them.

Gathering all her courage she said, "It’s all right, love, but I’ve gotta run, I’ve things to get done."

The ‘love’ slipped out unintentionally, she’d simply meant to say ‘dearie’. Before she thought about the possible implications of her slip she fled. She fled home. She didn’t stop until the door was safely locked behind her. She still fled inwardly as she lit the calming incense. She was still running as she microwaved her tea. She slowed down only once she had the warm mug in her hand and the incense was wafting through her apartment. She grasped the mug tightly as if its heat could warm her cold spirit. She looked out on the gray street and shook. She shook form the strain of maintaining the facade of normality. Of not slipping back into the abyss, into Limbo where there was no feeling, no thought. She had to come out of her shell sometime, there had to be an end somewhere. She thought of all her fears of the world and its pain, and she shook uncontrollably.

***********

He watched her, watched as she shivered. He had gone too fast.. He had been so greedy for true contact that he had ruined his chance. Pain showed clear on his face as he thought about what he would be missing. If only he could tell her the truth, maybe she would understand. Understand why he was so anxious, why he felt that if he waited it would be disastrous. But she wasn’t like him. She was a writer, had a family, had a life, what did she know of loneliness? She was lonely, true, but she had a true life, friends, support. He didn’t. If only…

The night passed uneventfully for both of them. Except for the nightmares of doubts and fears that faced them both.

Elysium smiled as she closed the door. She had been out shopping for dinner with Dirk. She’d found a dress that was practically custom made for her. Of course, had she used Section’s resources, it would have been custom made. However, she would have had to tell the Section about Dirk, and since out-of-Section interaction was strictly verboten, tres interdit, and otherwise not allowed, she seriously doubted they would be of assistance.

Besides, she’d heard of another operative who’d dated outside of Section, and only the intervention of a high placed operative, some said he did it out of love, had saved the poor innocent. Even in-Section romances were frowned upon, long term liaisons were permitted only if the operatives realized that they may be called upon to hurt, even kill, their loved one, should the circumstances require it so. But, she sighed, it’s too soon to worry about that right now. Now is for fun.

She swirled her dress around on the hanger. A deep forest green, it accented her eyes and the subtly highlights of her hair. As she put it away she noticed the blinking red light on her answering machine. She pushed the silver button and her heart fell as she heard the message.

"Lys, this is Dirk. I’m really sorry but my mother is very ill and I need to go take care of her. I have to cancel tonight’s dinner. I’m so very sorry. Gotta catch my flight. Bye."

She had just turned away from the phone when it rang. She snatched it up, only to have the person on the other end of the line say, "Elysium."

She immediately snapped to attention "Yes?"

"Get to Section ASAP."

"Yes ma’am."

She figured that at least it was an okay time, she wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

She walked quickly into the briefing room. Seeing she was the last one there, she flashed everyone a brief smile and sat down in the empty chair.

Cherokee began the briefing. "There will be two teams on this operation. The team from Section One is already in place. They will be there as a backup team, and to convey the goods to another link. The target is an international "business" man currently in San Francisco. He is transporting a program with the capability to grant access to any and all systems. Section computer experts say that with this program, hacking our systems would take a max. of 30 minutes. He needs someone to translate documents and Elysium will be the temp secretary. I offered to have you do the file transfer, but Section One wants their own genius boy, Birkoff, to do it. They think he’s better just because he hacked Section at age 14. Anyways, you’ll be there, doors closed, and he’ll hear typing that he thinks will be you translating, actually it will be Birkoff getting the program and deleting the copy on his computer. Section One will then pull out their squad, you will finish translating, then both teams will filter back to Section Two headquarters here. Questions?"

"What language am I translating to?"

"French. Others? No, Good. Move out."

The operation went according to plan. Birkoff gave her a quick smile then attacked the computer with an intensity stronger than she would have thought possible to feel for an inanimate object. 5 minutes later he was gone and she was typing a dull report on wine rates around the world for a French wine merchant.

7 hours later she was out and walking towards the rendezvous point. She paused a moment then shook her head. No, couldn’t be, she thought to herself. She could have sworn she’d seen Dirk, but that could only be her imagination. She got aboard the plane and was soon on her way up the coast.

Back at Section 2 HQ the operatives met for debriefing. Cherokee introduced the teams. As she spoke the operatives stepped forward. "These are the Section One operatives you were working with. Meet Lazarus, Karl, MacBeth, and Merlin."

There was something about Merlin she recognized, but no, he was definitely NOT a Section operative. And he most certainly didn’t have a harelip. Besides, he was taking care of his mother.

Cherokee then introduced the members of the Section Two team. "Now meet Alaina, Isabo, Hercules, and Elysium. Your two groups will be the ones used in all joint Section operations from now on. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your team members well, for your lives will depend on them. A job well done, dismissed."

Elysium started talking with the other operatives. Lazarus was a rakish man of about forty who truly looked like the character from Heinlein’s books. Karl had dark blue-black hair and a flirtatious smile, a true ladies’ man. MacBeth had a slightly devious look in his eyes. She memorized every thing, names, faces, statistics, everything. She got one of the biggest shocks of her life when she got to Merlin. He was busy removing his disguise and only looked up after she coughed rather loudly.

"Oh, sorry, I…." The color drained from his face when he looked up. "You, but, but…"

She knew the feeling. It was, as they say, the feeling of a fish out of water. She felt dizzy all of a sudden and half fell, half sat, on the ground.

"I thought you were taking care of your mother…"

"Fictional character. I needed a cover story. You’re an operative?"

"Yes, or did you know that already? Was everything you said a lie, practice for some mission, maybe a test to see if I’d stay loyal to Section? Well?" She felt sick inside as the doubts began to eat away at her, what if?

"No, I swear to you, everything I said was true, all my feelings, my opinions, were 100% true. I swear it."

The feeling was slowly coming back into her limbs. She began to smile. Laughing an ironic little chuckle, she said, "Well, looks like we got our date after all. What do you say we get some take out and talk this over at my place? This is too weird for words and we need to clear some things up."

"Good idea. I could use a dose of sanity right now. I thought I was going to faint when I saw you there."

She smiled at that and they walked arm in arm into the gray street.

They picked up some Chinese food on the way back to her apartment. There they talked about life and their introductions into the Section. They started sitting on separate chairs, but as the night wore on they slowly moved closer and closer, first the couch, then the floor, then her in his lap.

She couldn’t recall how it happened. Suddenly there was no more sound. They were just there together. And then, it was his mouth on hers, or maybe her mouth on his, she couldn’t be sure. She was in his arms and he was carrying her to the bedroom. He was passionate and tender.

Before she drifted off to sleep, the last thought she had was, "So this is what it’s like to be alive."

The End.


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