It was the soft, almost unnoticeable, snores drifting over from the backseat that made Adam smile. He knew that Ana hadn't slept at all during her stay at Office a la Adam, not that he could really blame her given the camp beds that appeared to have been resurrected from wartime, but she appeared almost dazed by sleep deprivation so there was no question as to whether she needed sleep or not. That was often the problem with Ana, too stubborn for her own good. She would push herself past the point at which normal people would give in and refuse help if she was possibly able to do so.
It was also one of the qualities that made her one of the best spies that ARC had.
Adam reached up to tilt the rearview mirror so that he could check on her knowing that Tom wouldn't mind as he very rarely managed to use the mirrors when driving. Ana was curled up, spread across the back seat of the car, her head resting against Adam's coat in a makeshift pillow, her bare toes brushing across the soft leather of the seat.
"How have things been?" Tom broke the near silence, speaking quietly so as not to wake their passenger.
"Interesting." Adam divulged, his eyes focusing on Ana's form for a moment more before he allowed his attention to fall back on to the road ahead.
Tom had known Adam for almost as long as Adam had known Ana. It was an occupational hazard in their line of work. Everyone knew everyone, although it did come in handy to know that the person you were shooting at was indeed a foe and not a friend in disguise.
Owing to their instant friendship and the coincidental timings Tom had been privy to more than a few drunken musings about Adam's feelings for Ana. He knew all about the Christmas party antics that had ultimately led to the deterioration of their friendship and the teasing defence mechanism that Adam had since put into place to prevent his heart from going astray.
Personally Tom thought that the whole situation was completely idiotic, and he had voiced his opinion on the matter more than once to Adam, yet his friend refused to listen to anyone's advice and continued to find pleasure in the various shades of red that Ana's cheeks would turn at his quips.
"Has she said anything about him? Or what happened to make her leave?" Mario was notorious across the world, known for dealing in some of the darkest shadows. He was a criminal, most definitely but his danger lay in the fact that he didn't operate alone.
As head of one of the largest Italian Mafias he had an incomprehensible number of men ready to respond to his every beck and call. It was primarily for this reason that most of the ARC agents refused to touch him.
Ana was the exception.
She had wondered into the lion's den with no regard for her own safety, simply operating under the knowledge that if she were successful in bringing this man to justice then hundreds of needless deaths could be stopped.
"She hasn't spoken about it, no." Adam's eyebrows furrowed.
It had been two weeks now. Two weeks since Adam's mobile had rung at a few minutes past four in the morning and Ana's choked up voice had crackled down the line.
He had gone immediately, why wouldn't he. She was a fellow agent and in trouble. She didn't offer him many details just the announcement that she needed a lift and a cryptic location. That was enough.
If he had questioned her decision to call him he didn't pursue the topic when he tracked down the fleeing brunette on the roadside and took in the tear bruised eyes and drenched clothes.
Since that night all Adam had learnt was that Ana had broken off her engagement with Mario the previous night at dinner. She had fled immediately knowing that he would not take the rejection well and had then travelled as far as she was able with no funds, no vehicle and no map in the middle of rural Italy.
Adam had been her last resort but he was an option that she had to take. Mario's men arrived fifteen minutes after the pair had left, rifles at the ready.
Adam occasionally found it strange that Ana didn't speak a word about Mario or the past months that she had spent in his company. Most agents wore missions, even those which didn't go completely according to plan like medals around their neck. They would boast to their heart's contents about gun fights and interrogations. None of this had ever been Ana's style but there was a time when she would have disclosed at least how she was feeling to a select group of trusted individuals.
Adam had long since been expelled from this privileged few, nevertheless he didn't think her behaviour was particularly healthy but perhaps it wasn't his place to judge.
"She rang you didn't she?" Tom asked. "When she up and left in the middle of the night? Doesn't that seem strange to you?
"What do you mean?" Adam had begun to watch Ana once more, a sudden twitch of her muscles demanding his attention.
"I mean, it isn't the most obvious of choices is it? The two of you weren't exactly friends."
"She needed help, I was in the country. It was pure logistics, nothing more."
"And how did she know that you were in Italy given that she was knee deep in the Mafia with no outside contact?"
Adam didn't have an answer for that, at least not one that made logical sense. He had assumed at the time that Ana must have somehow known that he was in the country, he wasn't sure how she would have got her hands on that kind of information but he had no doubt that she could be resourceful at the best of times.
Now of course, that option appeared to be less feasible. Ana had been dark for a few months back then. She had entered the Mafia with the knowledge that to back out at any point would be to commit suicide. With no method to issue a distress call Adam was mystified as to how she had even managed to get her hands on the mobile phone and yet somehow she had managed to evade the Mafia's detection for a little over six hours.
"Do you know what I think?" Tom asked without waiting for a response from his friend before offering his opinion. "I think that she had no idea that you were in Italy. I think that she called you because you were someone that she trusted. She trusted that you would come and find her despite the fact that she had just shredded the ARC rule book and spat on the Mafia. She trusted you to keep her safe."
Adam shook his head, refusing to allow the fanciful thoughts to take hold.
"I think she likes you, man." Tom teased earning a soft chuckle from Adam as they turned into the driveway of their new home and the car pulled to a stop.
After more than a little bit of coercion Adam had managed to convince Ana to choose the house with the swimming pool and now that they were back with the keys in hand ready to unpack all of their earthly goods he was more than pleased that he had.
The red brick house stood behind the gated driveway, the tall white framed windows reaching into the sky to allow natural light to blanket each of the rooms. Around the back there was a garden, downstairs a games room beside the swimming pool, upstairs eight bedrooms each with en-suites. It was paradise.
Indulging in a moments more admiration for the beautiful house Adam dragged his gaze away to open the back door of the car and rouse Ana.
"Rise and shine Sparky."
He only touched her briefly, his fingertips brushing against her skin but it was enough to jolt her out of her nap and sharply back into the land of the conscious.
"We are here." Adam offered in way of explanation as sleep surrendered Ana's mind and she tried to make sense of her new surroundings. He could see the confusion in her eyes just before comprehension took hold and she must have realised that she had fallen asleep.
She coughed lightly a few times to clear her throat. "It feels bigger than before." She murmured as she emerged from the car and set her eye upon the house that towered before them.
"That's what she said." Adam muttered sniggering at himself as he popped the boot and started to unpack one of their hundreds of cases onto the gravel. He should have expected the slap to the back of the head but somehow it still caused him to jolt forward as Ana's delicate hand caused him to lose a few brain cells.
"Hey!"
"Sorry, I slipped." Ana responded her voice devoid of empathy as she glanced at Tom and instructed him to control his child.
"I am not a child." Adam responded sounding surprisingly like a two year old having a tantrum. He even stomped his foot against the stones causing Ana simply to raise an eyebrow as a suggestion that he had just proven her point before she lifted one of the cases and took it up the few steps to the front door.
"Shouldn't we sweep the house first?" Tom asked Adam quietly, watching the woman walk away from them.
"Probably but she just whacked me round the head and called me a child so no."
"Adam..."
"Oh Sparky darling, wait for us." Adam crooned and surprisingly Ana did stop just as her fingers touched onto the door knob. As he approached the door, a bag delicately teetering on his shoulder as he hauled another two in each hand, it became obvious that she had not stopped because of his instruction. "Can't I just have one day off from this B*stard, just one?!"
He groaned at the sight of the champagne bottle with a post it tacked to its golden top and the scattering of rose petals over the concrete steps. All he had wanted to do was unload the ridiculous number of bags they had squeezed into the car and have a dip in the pool before sleeping in a bed that was actually made in this century but no, as usual Mario had to go and ruin it.
"Step back Ana. Tom call Chambers and tell him that I want the CCTV footage in my email account yesterday please." Adam dropped all of the bags that he had been carrying letting them thud to the ground dramatically but Ana remained transfixed on the sight before her. He climbed the few steps to reach her following her gaze to the note attached to the bottle.
A ogni uccello il suo nido è bello – M
"What does it mean?" Adam asked quietly, so close to Ana that he could hear her calm breaths as she stared impassively.
"To every bird his nest is beautiful. It's an Italian proverb, the equivalent to 'there is no place like home' in English."
"Well that's sweet of him." Adam responded sarcastically, placing his hand on Ana's shoulder to tug her away from the bottle, half expecting it to explode any second.
"It's what he said to me when he proposed."
"I've said it before, and I will say it again, you've got a real keeper there Sparky." Adam made sure than Ana was well away from the door before he picked up a stone from the ground and backed away to a reasonably safe distance. Getting low to the ground and tugging Ana down behind him he launched the pebble towards the bottle and braced himself for the explosion but there was only the tiny tink as the stone rebounded off of the glass.
"Huh." He was sure it would explode. Why else place a bottle of bubbly on the doorstep of your ex-fiancé's new home. "Maybe it's poisoned?" He suggested dubiously eyeing up the bottle.
"Poison isn't really Mario's style." Ana muttered, moving past Adam and picking up the bottle before he could stop her.
"Sparky, as much as I admire your insanity, I would prefer to keep my job and Chambers has already made it abundantly clear that getting you blown up is really not part of the job description so if you wouldn't mind saving me the aneurysm and putting the bottle back that would be great."
Ana swiftly launched the bottle into the air simultaneously drawing out her handgun with its silencer attached to the barrel and fired a single shot, shattering the bottle mid-air, releasing hundreds of slips of blood red paper to the floor. They floated serenely through the air like confetti forming a shroud around Ana.
"Or you know, you could just do that and knock twenty years off my life." Adam muttered as he stooped to pick up one of the pieces and examined the elegant calligraphy that had been printed on each one.
To the happy couple.
"Well that's not even remotely creepy." He tossed the paper to the ground idly wondering for a moment how long the mess would take to clear up later but his mind focused once more when he caught sight of Ana's vacant stare. "How did you know it wasn't a bomb?"
"It was a hunch. Mario has always been one for theatrics. He likes to play with his food. The bomb outside our apartments' wasn't there to kill us, why else would his men have fired the shots that woke me when there was no one around? It was there to scare me. To make me fear him. His intentions were the same with this bottle."
He didn't ask if she did. He knew that the answer wouldn't be an honest one if he did. Ana was never one to admit a weakness unless she had to.
"Having a little bit of impromptu target practice?" Tom asked as he came back from making his call and nodded to Adam indicating that the CCTV footage would be on its way to him as they spoke.
"Ana needs all the help she can get."
"Says the one that managed to shoot the wing mirror off of that car the other day." Ana quipped, crumpling the confetti underfoot as she moved towards the front door once more.
"It was intentional."
"You were supposed to take out the wheels." She deadpanned, going through the endless security measures that would enable her to enter her own home.
"It was an easy mistake." Adam defended over Tom's laughter but Adam didn't really mind that they were laughing at him so long as the smile on Ana's face remained in place of the vacant apathy that had previous been on show. "Where do you want these cases?"
"I don't know why you are asking me most of them are yours so where ever you want but I'm taking the room at the back on the top floor." Ana informed him, depositing her bag in the country style kitchen just off the hallway that the front door opened into before she went back out to the car to fetch some more of their belongings.
"These are all yours?" Tom asked as he struggled to haul a particularly large bag over the threshold.
"Maybe."
***
Over an hour later and Adam was starting to regret putting the home gym on the second floor. The theory was that it would mean fewer stairs after a workout but lugging the exercise bike up two flights of stairs wasn't the easiest task.
"Sparky, you know how much you want to give me a massage." He teased as he limped into the kitchen where Ana was unloading boxes.
"Less than I want to jump off a cliff, yes."
"Please."
"No."
"Annaa..." Adam whined, collapsing onto one of the kitchen stools but regretting the choice as it wobbled vicariously beneath his weight.
"What was that about not being a child?" Ana responded, her voice muffled as it found its way out of the cupboard Ana's head was currently located in.
"I am not a child." Adam said indignantly, rising from his precarious seat to search the cupboard that Ana had already organised. "Do we have any chocolate milk?"
"Top cupboard on the left." A hand flew out of the cupboard that Ana was almost sitting in now and gestured to the cupboard near Adam which he quickly raided, sighing contently when he discovered the milk hiding behind the flour.
Leaving Ana to her unpacking, Adam nestled his sore muscles amongst the tens of cushions that lined the sofa in the living room and enjoyed slurping on his milk for a few peaceful moments before he heard the shuffling of light toes. They both knew that Adam would have already registered her presence but he didn't question her appearance or even bother to open his eyes that had drifted shut. He had known her long enough to know that if she wanted to tell him what was on her mind she needed time and space to do so.
"What did she say to you?"
This morning the pair of them, or rather just Adam as Ana hadn't managed to succumb to the luxury of sleep, was rudely awoken but a sharp rap at his office door. Margarete, Ana's mother, had requested that Adam join her for tea.
After a few sleepy curse words about the hour, he had reluctantly moved from his prehistoric resting place to lazily pat down his hair and get changed into something more appropriate. Margarete wasn't a woman that would approve of the sight of Adam in plaid.
He had returned three hours later to a highly anxious, although she pretended not to be, Ana. Her mother's presence was always enough to set her nerves on edge.
They hadn't spoken about Adam's talk with Margarete at the time, Ana not having the courage to listen to their topic of conversation but Adam knew that the question had been brewing since that moment. He was almost surprised that she had managed to contain herself this long.
"She just wanted to talk. About my life, the job..."
"Me?"
His silence was answer enough. In truth the vast majority of their time had been spent discussing Ana, or rather Margarete talking to Adam about Ana. It had been more of a monologue than a conversation.
Ana's eyes searched the speckled rug as she dug her bare toes into its soft confides. "What's going to happen now?"
"She wants you to continue to help bring Mario to justice." Want was a bit of push, demanded was more like the reality of the matter but Adam didn't think that term would go down very well.
"Of course she does." It wouldn't matter to Margarete that this was the man that wanted to murder her daughter. It wouldn't matter to Margarete than Ana felt sick at the mere thought of being in Mario's company once more. It probably hadn't of even crossed her mind to question why Ana had left him.
"I told her you wouldn't go back to him. She agreed." With some persuasion.
Ana's eye rose from the rug, they sought out Adam's, searching for something.
"We start work tomorrow." Adam continued, holding her gaze.
"We?"
"I told her that for you to continue to work on this case would be a huge security risk. If I were to work alongside you I could help to minimise the risk, to keep you safe."
"She doesn't care about my safety or she wouldn't have thrown me back to the dogs." Ana muttered, lowing herself into the adjacent sofa to Adam's and curling her feet beneath her as she absorbed the news.
To work from the outside and take Mario down would be much harder. It was part of the reason she had been assigned to be on the inside in the first place but she did know the organisation now. She knew the people and she knew the way that it worked, who went where and when. These were, hopefully, the details that would give them the edge.
"Then she must want me dead too because you are stuck with me Sparky." Adam teased, sipping his milk slowly as he watched her.