Wednesday's Child: Personally Speaking, Part II

[alynwa.livejournal.com]

April approached the office door and knocked twice. She saw the small red light above the pneumatic door flash green at the same time she heard the occupant say “Enter!”

She pushed the button that caused the door to slide sideways and stepped through. “Napoleon?”

“Hi, I’m afraid you just missed Illya, but he’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“Actually, I was waiting until he left. I wanted to speak with you specifically and off the record.” She sat at Illya’s desk and watched as the CEA closed the folder he had been reading and focused his attention on her.

“Since this is ‘off the record,’ does that mean we are talking about my partner?”

“And mine. You probably haven’t heard anything, but the gossip grapevine has been buzzing for a few days about an alleged conversation they had in the Commissary. I’ve been hearing bits and pieces; no one knows exactly what the argument was about, but everyone seems to be in agreement that it was an argument.”

“Ah. You think this ‘argument’ had to do with you.”

“I’m sure of it, Darling. I told Mark that Illya and I have been seeing each other and he told me that if Illya hurt me, he would have to answer to him. I have a strong feeling that Mark told Illya exactly that the other day.”

Napoleon’s eyebrows raised. “Illya is a very private person; if that was the gist of the discussion between them, he wouldn’t have appreciated it and would have let his displeasure be known.” He leaned back and crossed his arms. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing, Napoleon. If they don’t mention it to us, I don’t think we should mention it to them. I just felt you should be aware.”

“Since we’re off the record here, April, I want you to know that I would never use my position to punish you if things between you and Illya go south. Beyond the fact that it would be completely unprofessional, Illya would kill me for getting involved. Besides,” he grinned, “you’re my friend, too.”

“How about Mark? Is he your friend?”

Napoleon’s grin disappeared. “As much as you are, so the same goes for him. However, having said that, I can’t allow Mark to go after Illya in defense of your honor.”

April stood to leave. “I’ll handle Mark, Darling. I’d better go before he starts wondering where I’ve gone off to; I said I was going to pick up our reports from the secretarial pool. See you later.”

The CEA went back to reading his reports. The last thing I need is Mark and Illya at each other’s throat.

An hour later found Napoleon dictating a memo to Christina from the secretarial pool to announce the date and agenda of the next Section II meeting when someone knocked on the door once again. “Just a minute!” he called. He finished his dictation and instructed her to bring it back for his signature before she left for the day.

“Of course, Mr. Solo,” she said with a toss of her hair. She opened the door to reveal Mark Slate standing there patiently waiting for entry. “Excuse me, Mr. Slate,” she said as he moved out of her way.

“Come in, Mark,” Napoleon said as he sat up straighter. “How are you today?”

“I’m fine, but if I could ‘ave a word? Off the record?”

“Seems like a lot of that is going around, lately.”

Mark looked confused. “What?”

The CEA shrugged, “Nevermind. Sit. What’s on your mind?”

Mark sat in the chair next to Napoleon’s desk and crossed his arms. “’As Illya said anything to you about a conversation we ‘ad the other day?”

“No,” he answered honestly, “What about?”

The Brit sighed. “About ‘im and April. Napoleon, I mucked it all up. I like Illya, you know that. I consider ‘im a mate, but April’s my partner. I just wanted ‘im to know…I ‘ave ‘er back.”

“And he took umbrage?”

“Oh yeah, ‘e did. Let me know that was the last time we’d be ‘aving that talk.” He uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his sides. “I want your opinion, Napoleon. I don’t want things to be weird between your partner and me. ‘Ow should I deal with this?”

“Mark, Illya’s my partner; I know more about him than anyone and I don’t know everything. He’s a very private person who doesn’t share his feelings or thoughts lightly or with just anyone. He considers you a friend, too. I doubt seriously that you have damaged your friendship. My advice to you is to drop it and not say anything. Let it blow over.”

“Will ‘e?”

“He will. He’s completely capable of holding a grudge, but like I said, he considers you a friend. Given who the subject of the conversation was, I’m sure he’ll just think of it as a misstep on your part.”

Mark thought about it and agreed, “I’ll do it your way then, Napoleon. Thanks for listening.” He stood up to go.

“Mark.” Napoleon leaned on his desk and said, “I don’t know April’s romantic history, but I do know my partner. He cares a great deal for her. If anyone is capable of hurting someone, it’s April. If she were to decide she is no longer interested, you would never know it, but he would be hurt. Whatever happens between the two of them, I’ve made a decision that I’m staying out of it unless one of them comes to me officially. My last piece of advice is that you do the same thing.”

Mark tipped an imaginary hat to his CEA. “Thanks, Napoleon. Later.” He walked out of the office and almost bumped into Illya. “’Ello, Mate,” he said without thinking and then quickly wondered how the Russian would react.

After a second’s hesitation Illya smiled shyly and answered, “Hello, Mark” before entering his office.

Mark looked at the closed door for a few seconds before continuing on his way. Napoleon is right, he thought, Illya and I will be fine.

“Hello, Napoleon. I saw Mark in the hall. Anything going on I need to know about?”

“No.”

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Ah the plot is thinkening little by little. Good continuation.