The Shards of Our Past Affair, 3/? (Non-Challenge fic)

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Ghosts turning up in the workplace is generally not a good idea.


By Lucky_Ladybug

Scene Three

Illya arrived at work at the proper time the next day and settled in at his desk after receiving his badge from the receptionist. He still needed to make his report for the case he and Napoleon had just finished, so he set a stack of folders to the side of the desk in order to begin typing. Soon he was so caught up in the memories of the case and how to phrase them in his report that he didn't initially notice he wasn't alone.

"Hello, Kuryakin."

Illya jumped a mile and at the same time hit the space bar far too many times. "I knew I was jinxing myself when I was grateful you hadn't shown up here," he said frostily. As he turned to look, he found Mr. Ecks sitting on the edge of the desk, next to the folders.

Ecks just shrugged. "I told you I can't control where I show up. But it always seems to be around you."

"I wonder what will be next," Illya said sarcastically. "Appearing before me during a very critical moment on a case?"

"I wouldn't count it out." Ecks smirked. "At least you seem to be in a better mood than when I left you before."

"No thanks to you." Illya gave him a withering look. "I need to finish this report. Do you mind?"

"No." Ecks slid off the desk and came to stand behind Illya. "You were fighting a megalomaniac who thought that breaking all Ten Commandments would make him surpass Alexander the Great?!" He straightened and smirked. "No wonder you didn't want to tell me about it."

"I barely want to tell Mr. Waverly," Illya retorted, holding a hand in front of the report. "Unfortunately, that is a necessity."

"That plan doesn't even make the least bit of sense," Ecks snarked. "Didn't he realize that Alexander the Great wouldn't give a flying fig about the Ten Commandments? He wasn't Jewish."

"He wasn't the sort of person who could be reasoned with," Illya said. "Quite frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if he was using that plot as an excuse to break every Commandment because he simply wanted to be that lascivious."

"It wouldn't surprise me either," Ecks giggled. "The world is filled with people who just want to be bad."

"Such as yourself and Mr. Wye?" Illya said without skipping a beat.

Ecks was suddenly not amused. "What is it with you, Kuryakin? You're so convinced that Wye and I are practically the Devil incarnate."

"Neither of you particularly endeared yourselves to me," Illya said coolly. "But before you say anything else, I realize that extremists tend to think of themselves as the 'good guys.'"

"I never liked those idiots," Ecks sneered. "The ones thinking the organization really was sacred. At least Zed wasn't so hypocritical. He knew he was after absolute power and that the organization was scarcely sacred at all. As for myself, I didn't have a choice about being part of things. I was all too happy to jump on Zed's bandwagon and give the finger to an organization that had always imprisoned me. I don't have to tell you more than that. And Wye's motivations are not your business."

"I suppose it depends on how badly you want me to understand the two of you," Illya replied.

"I don't really care, Kuryakin," Ecks said. "Why should I want you of all people to understand us? But I still think that my opinion of you was not incorrect. You do believe in absolutes. Wye and I worked for an organization you can't tolerate. Therefore, we must be scum, just like every other person who worked for it."

Illya clenched his fists. "You're right that I have a difficult time seeing you as anything other than extremists. They are among the scum of the earth. Regardless of your personal viewpoints, you worked for that organization and furthered its goals. I find that very hard to understand . . . or forgive."

Ecks snapped up and circled the chair, his eyes dark. "I don't need your forgiveness, Kuryakin," he scoffed. "It's nothing to me if you forever carry a dark feeling towards me in your heart. That's your problem."

Illya turned to watch him. "And how do you feel towards me?" he shot back. "It occurs to me to wonder if you are bitter because of how I ended your life instead of rendering you unconscious. Perhaps that is why you are restless and unable to leave me alone."

Ecks turned away. "You place too much importance on yourself."

"You said you don't know why you cannot be at rest," Illya pointed out. "Why couldn't it be that?"

Ecks looked back at him over his shoulder. "I guess technically it's possible."

"You had better think about it," Illya insisted. "If it is possible, maybe you can acknowledge it and figure out how to work past it. Then we would both be happier."

"I already know it's just something to be expected in the spy trade," Ecks replied, turning away again. "If you meet an enemy agent on a case, chances are only one of you will walk away from it."

"You've said that, yet I can hear a definite bitterness in your words." Illya watched him carefully.

Ecks looked down at an open folder on Illya's desk. "If I feel any bitterness, maybe it's because you went against U.N.C.L.E.'s standard policy and killed me when there would have been another way. With just about any other organization I would expect death, but from U.N.C.L.E. I would have expected mercy."

"If it had been up to Napoleon, you would have had it," Illya said. "It was just your bad luck that I came up with the solution before Napoleon had a chance to knock you out."

Ecks spun around to face him. "Oh yes. It was my bad luck that I made an amateur mistake and didn't realize I was being followed by you and Solo. And it was my bad luck that I encountered one of the most ruthless agents of U.N.C.L.E. In other circumstances I might have liked to engage you in a battle of wits and skills, but I never had the chance. To be dead because of bad luck is so ignoble, so ridiculous!"

"That is the risk of the spy game." Illya stood, regarding the spectre with cold eyes. "Every one of us takes that risk every day. Even someone who has been an excellent agent for years can make an amateur mistake and end up dead. It's part of being human."

Ecks was silent for a moment. "Odd to hear you preach about humanity," he remarked, "when you're one of the most aloof and almost robotic U.N.C.L.E. agents. Or so they say."

"I have heard similar tales about you." Illya's voice remained even.

Ecks finally started to turn around, smirking again. "We're strangely alike, you and I. Even if you don't want to believe it. Not just in certain physical attributes, but in our occupation and how we handle it."

"But not in motivation." Illya sat down again. "As much as I hate to type this, I must finish this report before I'm called on another assignment. If you wish to stay, you will have to be quiet."

"Or I could just wander around the building," Ecks quipped. "I've never been in U.N.C.L.E. HQ before. I'm understandably curious."

Illya scowled. "It's not as though I can stop you. At least you can't really do any damage . . . unless someone else can see or hear you."

"Or unless I'm a poltergeist." Ecks reached out, attempting to knock the folders off the desk. He could not.

"Thank goodness you are not." Illya began to type again.

Ecks soon grew bored and wandered over near the open doorway to the office. At that moment, Napoleon walked in and walked through the spectre. "Illya?"

Illya immediately whirled around. Although he managed to keep his expression impassive, he had to admit to some very keen inner satisfaction at Ecks' uncomfortable and extremely disturbed visage. "What is it, Napoleon?"

"Mr. Waverly was just asking me about your report," Napoleon said. "Ah, I see you're working on it now."

"Yes. I should have it ready within the hour." Illya turned back to the desk to start typing once more.

Napoleon hesitated. "Ah, Illya . . . were you on the telephone right before I came in? It sounded like you were talking to someone again."

Illya was not pleased. I knew I should have shut that door when I came in, he silently berated himself. Aloud he said, "No, I was not on the telephone." It would be useless to lie about it anyway; the switchboard would have no record of it.

"Getting overly involved in your report?" Napoleon watched him for a moment. "I've never known you to talk about them aloud unless you're with someone."

"I am very uninvolved with my report, Napoleon, and as you yourself said, Mr. Waverly wants it."

"Yes." Taking the hint, Napoleon headed back to the door. This time Ecks scrambled out of the way.

Illya typed for a moment and then looked up, sensing the other mortal presence was still there. "Napoleon?"

Napoleon lightly tapped his fingers on the doorframe. "Illya, if anything's bothering you . . ."

"Why would anything be bothering me?" Illya retorted. "Except perhaps how completely useless we were regarding this madman's defeat?" He glowered at the typed paragraphs. "It pains me to record it for preservation." Somewhere behind him, he could easily imagine that Ecks was quietly laughing again.

Napoleon sighed. "I'm not all that proud of it myself," he admitted. "But I just try to focus on the fact that he was defeated. Even if we were not the direct instruments of his downfall, we can at least be grateful of that."

"Yes, that is true." Illya studied his report. "I will have to be content with that."

Napoleon gave a nod. "I'll see you after you finish your report." With that he headed out of the office.

Illya resumed typing, hoping against hope that if he did not acknowledge Ecks, the conversation would not begin again. Of course, it was a vain hope.

"You failed your mission, Kuryakin?"

"I hoped you had disappeared." Illya didn't look over. "Yes, that is the only way to put it. Although if he hadn't been defeated by someone else, I am certain that Napoleon and I would have foiled his plans."

"Go ahead and keep thinking that, if it makes you feel better." Ecks half-circled the desk and came to stand behind it, facing Illya. "I like to tell myself that if you hadn't stabbed me, maybe I still would have completed my assignment at some point. Everyone does it when they fail."

"How insightful." Illya kept typing.

"You're determined not to be jarred from your work, aren't you."

"Exactly. So if you would kindly leave, I will finish typing this humiliation of a report before Mr. Waverly asks for it again."

Ecks shrugged. "I have nowhere to go. I think I'll just stay here instead."

"Wandering U.N.C.L.E. HQ no longer holds intrigue for you?"

"If it's going to involve everyone walking through me like I'm not here? It most certainly doesn't." Ecks sat down in a chair with folded arms.

Illya decided not to spend too much time pondering on why Ecks could sit on things. "You will have to get used to it if you aren't going to move on," he said matter-of-factly.

"I would like to move on, Kuryakin. I don't know how." Ecks started to slouch. "What about your offer of a vodun priestess or a witch doctor?"

"I wasn't fully serious."

"I didn't think so."

Illya finally looked up again. "I still would certainly like you gone. So far your presence has merely been irritating, but it could actually be dangerous if you appear in the middle of a case."

Ecks straightened and sneered at him. "You think I would deliberately endanger you or Solo if that happened?"

"You wouldn't have to do anything deliberately," Illya pointed out. "Just appearing out of nowhere could startle me enough that the entire assignment could turn against us, depending on what was happening at the moment." He paused. "But as for whether you would do it deliberately . . ." He looked hard at the strange ghost. "I couldn't say. I do not trust you, yet I believed you when you said you wouldn't try to take revenge on me. Still, if you actually found yourself in a situation where you could do it so easily, perhaps it would be too much of a temptation for you."

Ecks frowned. "I would hate to think I'm that weak. Would you be tempted to take revenge were this situation reversed?"

"No," Illya said flatly. "Not if the situation were reversed exactly. Now, if I was angry about someone other than myself being harmed . . ." His eyes narrowed. "I might do it."

"I might as well," Ecks acknowledged. "But all that aside, if you really want me gone, Kuryakin, you're probably going to have to do something about it such as what you already suggested."

"Or I could find a Catholic priest to perform an exorcism," Illya grunted.

"Isn't that only for demons and evil spirits?" Ecks frowned.

"Evil is a relative term."

Ecks got up from the chair and started to circle the desk again. "And I am evil to you, I know."

"Just remember that you said that." Illya's fingers flew over the keys.

"You must feel so good about yourself, having eliminated such a dangerous threat."

"There are worse than you out there. But yes, I feel good about eliminating anyone who is an enemy."

"Or you did, until Solo made you question killing me."

Illya scowled. "You will probably always bring that up, won't you."

"Probably," Ecks sneered. "At least, as long as I'm around."

"Illya?"

Illya jumped a mile and turned to face the doorway. "I'm still working on the report, Napoleon."

"And talking to someone again?" Napoleon gave him a look that was a mix of confusion, suspicion, and concern.

"I . . ." Illya frowned more as he noticed Ecks was gone. "I must have been scolding myself for taking so long."

"Uh huh." From Napoleon's tone, he clearly didn't believe it. But he also wasn't going to push at this point. "Just bring it to Mr. Waverly's office when you're done," he said as he turned away.

Illya sighed to himself when he was alone again. There had been too many close calls in the last twelve hours. There could potentially be many more. Maybe he could have a talk with Napoleon later today and describe a hypothetical situation to see what Napoleon's reaction and advice would be. Of course, Napoleon probably wouldn't be fooled by the "hypothetical situation" chestnut.

"What am I going to do about you, Mr. Ecks?" Illya muttered as he covered his face with a hand. "You are going to drive me out of my mind before this is over."

Comments

[yumyumpm.livejournal.com]

Napoleon is getting suspicious. I must say bringing episodes into this helps place the time these events occurred. Finding out that Ecks can show up at HQ was interesting. BTW if I remember correctly the doors in UNCLE slid open and shut.

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love bringing episodes into things. :) Probably 99%, if not 100%, of what I write is episode-based.

I think Ecks can show up wherever Illya is, so if he wasn't at HQ Ecks probably couldn't pop in. And ahh, thanks! I knew the main doors did, but I wasn't sure if all the individual rooms and the office doors did too.

Thank you!