Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Grand Gestures and Day To Day Life: 6.6.1

A/N: Switching to Fi's POV for a bit. Getting out of prison, seeing Michael again. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.



6.6.1

Something is wrong. Fi's been dreaming of this moment, both literally and figuratively, for weeks now. And in none of them was Michael looking like that.

He's not smiling. He should be smiling. There should be a wide, happy, and most importantly, genuine, grin on his face.

Sam and Jesse aren't smiling, either. Somehow that's worse. It's possible Michael might just be too emotional to smile. It's happened before. She's seen him at times where he gets that sort of shut down look on his face just so he doesn't break down.

But that's not Jesse, and it's really not Sam.

They're also hanging back too far. She understands them hanging back some, letting Michael get the first hugs in, giving them a little privacy for their first touch in weeks, but they're too far back. They should be coming up, too. There should be hugs and jokes and congratulations and celebration.

There should be joy here.

He's holding her, and it's all she's wanted for weeks, the memory of it keeping her going, but this is different, it's too intense, too raw. There's an almost tremor to his touch, and he's holding on a bit too tight.

"I was beginning to think you didn't need me." Something has to break the tension.

"I need you now more than ever." That didn't sound good. His voice is wrong. Like his touch it's too raw, too intense, and Jesse and Sam are still standing by the Charger.  Still too far back. They should be coming up now.

Dread fills her as she asks, "Michael, what's wrong?"

His head presses against her shoulder, and she feels the almost tremor break into full on shaking. His tears are running over her shoulder, and she holds him, petting his back.

Finally Sam and Jesse come up.

She doesn't have to ask. Jesse tells her. "We got Anson. Actually, Nate got Anson. Found him, pulled his own gun on him, and had him waiting for us. We were walking toward them, all smiles and happy and then... Then some fucking asshole blew a hole through Anson, through Nate, through the goddamn steel sign behind Nate. The gun had to be the size of a fucking cannon. Anson's dead. Nate's"—He closes his eyes and inhales deeply, probably seeing it in his head again.—"dead." 
 
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Grand Gestures and Day To Day Life: 6.3.1



A/N: Michael and Fi's first reunion scene. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

6.3.1

Spies know that for all the high tech goodies, for all the almost magical gadgets that can save the day in a pinch, that when it comes down to it, the single most valuable skill they've got is the ability to talk.

The second most valuable skill is the ability to see what the person in front of you needs to hear.

She's clinging to the phone like it's a lifeline, and he knows that right now the only thing keeping her going is his voice.

So he talks about Ireland, and about how much he misses her, and this time, his tongue isn't bound and he does know what to say to give her hope. He knows what to say to make the darkness seem a bit less dark.

He tells her he loves her. Not in those specific words, and not because he can't say them, but because he won't. Not like this, not half-crying through a pane of glass. He promises himself he will tell her, in person, when they're both happy enough to smile, and preferably when they're both alone and naked as well.

He'll tell her when he can hold her close, smell her skin and hair, and see and hear and feel her respond to his words.

He'll tell her when she's free, and Anson's in the ground, and he's put this massive sea of crap behind them, and they can go off and be together.

He'll tell her when he can give it to her with the life, and the man, she deserves.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Fic Rec: Friend of a Friend of a Spy by Missy

I'm a sucker for close, non-sexual male friendships. (Granted, I like the sexy ones, too, but still...) And this is just perfect on that one. It's Sam in all his Samish glory taking care of Mike. OOC? Maybe a tad, but not by much and I really loved the way Missy nailed Sam's voice.

Grand Gestures and Day To Day Life: 6.1.1



A/N: The week after Anson flees, Michael copes with Fi gone.Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

6.1.1

The first night he, Sam, Jesse, and Pearce dissected every piece of paperwork Anson had in his office, his home, his personal computer, everything.

They have a list of people to watch out for. People who Anson may be blackmailing, or may, like that monster he sent to Maddie, be using to destroy other lives.

But there's nothing on Rebecca in any of the paperwork they find, which doesn't bode well for the idea that anyone they've pegged now is likely to be one of Anson's pawns.

They are not any closer to finding Anson. His tracks are too well covered for that.

On the upside, Jesse remembers the account where the money went, so they begin tracking it, working on cutting off Anson's funding.

Dawn breaks, and with it they break up.

Michael does not go back to the loft. He goes with Sam and crashes at his place. Hours later, he's three quarters asleep and half hears Sam explain to Elsa what's happened.

At lunch time they get together again, and go back to work.
 


The second night Sam took him to his mom's house, certain that Mike in the loft, alone was an awfully bad idea.

She fed him something, he has no idea what it was, no idea of much of anything that happened that night. Mostly he stumbled around in a haze of shell-shocked failure, vaguely aware of Sam answering his mom's questions in a soft voice.

Lunch to dinner and then beyond, and nothing. They've got no leads, no ideas, though the money is once again flagged. Now there's just waiting, hoping that Anson's crazy or sloppy enough to actually touch that account.

But Anson isn't lazy or sloppy.

The next morning he woke up in his old room, his tongue coated with foul tasting fuzz and a headache that felt like it was going to drill out of his skull and make his left eye explode. He's awfully sure Sam slipped him something in his dinner. Hangovers don't feel like this, but even if they did, he knows he didn't drink any alcohol last night.



The third night he takes her pillow off the bed, and retreats to the sofa on the loft. He wants her scent but can't stand to be in their bed alone.

He's halfway asleep when he realizes he's sulking about being alone in their home, their comfortable, free, open, and filled-with-good-things home, and she's locked in a prison cell.

He spends the next two hours beating the absolute hell out of the punching bag.

When his fingers are black and blue and will no longer form a fist, he collapses onto the sofa, holding her pillow, and falls into an exhausted sleep.



The fourth night, ghosts of Fi seem to whisper around him. He feels steeped in the lack of her. The flowers are starting to wilt. He waters them. Her snow globes catch the light and shine it at him while he walks from the shower to the sofa. The handcuffs, reproaching him for trying to cage her, mocking him for failing her, are still hanging from the chain link wall.



The fifth night he almost punches Jesse when he takes Fi's last meal out of the refrigerator, wondering what's making that odd smell.  It's Chinese takeout, long past its prime. They hadn't been able to eat it together. He'd been running back and forth to Tampa, and she had some spare time, so she got them dinner. He got home later, and sat with her, at the table, talking about what Vaughn had told him, eating his half. She'd finished hers hours earlier, tucking the remains away for a quick lunch.

Jesse looks at him sadly, while Sam says, "Mikey, it's growing mold. She's not going to want it when she gets back."



The sixth night, he spends going through Anson's files, again. And again. And yet one more time. And once after that. There has to be a crumb somewhere. Something, anything, that can open this up.

He's not really reading them. He's not really seeing the page in front of him.

Michael's hand strays to his pocket, touches the folded paper in it. He keeps her note with him at all times, though he hasn't re-read it since sitting in the Charger.  Sometimes he takes it out of his pocket and runs his fingers over the words. Usually he'll just touch it, and then start cursing about this whole thing.

She's trapped because of him. And he has to get her out, but he's got nothing.

The man who could fix anything, for anyone, can't do this.  There are no leads. Pearce can't help him. No one at Langley is willing to touch this.

He can't even find out which prison she's in. But he knows the first thing he's going to do when he gets that information is start on a plan to break her out. One way or another, Fi is getting out.



The seventh day, Sam brings him a letter, and with it, an idea of something that might help.

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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Grand Gestures and Day To Day Life: 5.18.1



A/N Michael watches Fi walk into the FBI. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

5.18.1

Twenty more minutes. All he needed was twenty more minutes.

Once the op was done, everything was in chaos. If he could have been a little faster, if Fi had been a little more patient, he could have gotten to her and they could have run.

He stands in traffic, the words of her note burned into his mind, and wants to cry or scream or shoot something or...

Twenty more minutes. He could have gotten to her. He's got a top secret level clearance, a CIA ID that's real and half a dozen other government IDs if that one wasn't optimal, and a pair of handcuffs. He could have been "taking her in," if anyone asked, gotten her on a plane, and they could have run.

They could have gotten away. Hidden her somewhere safe, and then gone for Anson's jugular. 

Twenty more minutes. She's no longer in view, and he's standing in the middle of traffic, starting to attract attention.

He's dropped the note, and scrambles to find it. He can't lose her words.

Sam finds him in the Charger, and all he wants to do is fight. He wants to pound on Sam, break him, not just for letting Fi go, but also for trying to tell him that ridiculously lame lie. 

Fi knocked Sam out? No way. Fi hit Sam so he'd have a plausible explanation for why he was handcuffed to the wall, sure. Michael believes that. He does not for one second believe that Fi got the drop on Sam and coldcocked him, or that Sam didn't know exactly what was going to happen when he got her purse.

But beating on Sam won't fix anything, and it won't make anything better, and Anson's in the wind, so they have to move.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Burn Notice Timeline

Okay, so when I write, I like to get my details all in order. When I'm doing my own stuff, I usually end up making one of these so my chronology is correct. With original fiction it's a bit easier because there's generally not so much research to do, and well, I'm the only one writing my fiction so I don't have to worry about someone adding cute details that mess with the cannon.

Anyway, here is, best as I can construct it, the Burn Notice Timeline. One major note on this, I'm using only the TV show for cannon here. I know, for example, that the First Contact graphic novel shows Fi and Mike getting together in 2003. But I also know the show tells us that Mike left Samantha because he was in love with Fi, and that the child that could have been his was supposed to be 9 in 2007. So, ummm... yeah. I'm not a math wizard, but I know that doesn't work.


December 2006 Michael Westen Burned (Show begins)

2006 Anson Fullerton subs in for Maddie's regular therapist.

2005 Mike in Colombia
2005 Sam Axe comes to Miami
2005 Sam Axe in Colombia (Fall of Sam Axe)

2001-2005 We know Mike was in Afghanistan, so this is probably the time he was there. He was probably doing other things as well, but no one knows what they were.

2002 Michael in Lybia?  We know he has information on an attack that happened there at that time.

2000-04 Fi leaves Ireland for New York.

2000-1997 Mike in Ireland? We know things with Samantha had to end in '97. Mike tells Card he successfully survived for six years in the field on his own, and we know Card pulled him out of Ireland, so 2000 is the latest he was there. We don't know if he left Ireland before his other 1999/1998 jobs or bounced between Ireland and other jobs.

1999 Michael and Sam in Moscow.

1998-1999? Michael in Bosnia. When tracking down Gilroy, one of the clues is a soccer stadium shooting in '98. Sam mentions that Mike missed the follow up on that because he was in Bosnia. So, depending on how long the "follow-up" took, we've got Mike in Bosnia around now.

1998 Frank Westen dies.


1997 Michael in St. Petersburg with Samantha

1995 Sam in Colombia.

1991-1992 Michael in the Balkans with Larry. Sam appears to have been around for at least some of this as well.

1988-1997? Michael has quite a reputation with the Russians. This is the period where Russia was red hot and the Iron Curtain fell to rust and then everyone had to deal with the clean up. So, I'm guessing at least some of this time was spent in Russia.

My guess is that sometime during this stint Michael and Larry were working together, and maybe it is the Chechnya massacre, but something got Anson's attention and put this whole thing in motion.

1984 Sam in East Germany with Virgil.

1983-88 Seventeen year old Mike joins the Army.

1974 Nate Westen born.

1967-1971 Michael Westen in born. Wikipedia had his birthday in 1967, and a bit from the Burn Notice outtakes, Michael reading for the audition, lists Westen as in Afghanistan in the '80s, which goes well with a '67 birthday and being 17 when he enlisted. Donovan was born in '66, which also goes well with the '67 birth date. However, at one point Madeline mentioned Mike sneaking out of the house at the age of six to see Star Wars, putting his birthday before May of '71. His fake ID had his birthday listed as 1970.

1953 Madeline Westen born. This explains a whole lot about Frank and Madeline Westen. If Mike was born in '71, that puts her at 18 when she got pregnant, and probably not much younger than that when she got married. If seventeen-year-old Maddie got swept off her feet by a much older man, got pregnant, and quickly married, that would explain how she ended up with someone who treated her and her children so badly.

1939 Frank Westen born.

I'll add more dates as I get them/figure them out.













Grand Gestures and Day To Day Life: 5.16.1



A/N More Mike musing about what's going on. Putting the meta puzzle pieces into place and trying to figure out what Anson and Managment's real game was. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

5.16.1

Eight years. His father died eight years before he got back to Miami.

Management and Anson played the long game longer than anyone else he's ever even heard of.

The worst part is he's not sure if he's grateful Anson killed the son of a bitch, or sorry he never got the chance to.

No, the worst part is not knowing if his father actually did want to say he was sorry, or if that's just Anson pulling his strings. Probably just pulling his strings.  Frank Westen crying in his drink over a lost relationship with his son is something that Michael literally cannot imagine.

He pushes it aside, or tries to. He's been wandering about in a daze, trying to process this, or trying not to, and doing a piss poor job of looking like he's not affected by something.

Fi's saying something to him.

He half pays attention, trying to get his mind away from this, and is failing utterly.

She touches him. "What is it, Michael?"

He shakes his head. Part of him wants to tell her. Part of him is trying. But his words vanish, skitter away from him, hiding. He can't say this, not to her, not to anyone. Not yet.

He half smiles, and she knows something's up, but she also knows him well enough to know that smile means he can't or won't talk. She squeezes his hand, and they settle down for bed.

Eight years.

Anson pegged him eight years before he was burned. Before that. He would have had to have seen something, decided Michael was worth it. Then do the research, and do it long enough for his father to become suspicious. Ten years? Maybe. How long did Anson spend with his father? Did he actually spend any time with him? Was this just a lie?

Anson said Management was against choosing him. That could explain the down time. Anson started in on Michael, began getting his information, and Management nixed it. Then... eight years later changed his mind?

Maybe...

That doesn't feel right.

Eight years later Anson finally convinced him?

No, that's not right either.

There's something, just beyond his grasp. A piece of the puzzle. He closes his eyes, forces himself to relax and focus. Management didn't want him. Anson did. Eight years between killing his father and seeing his mother. Management ran the ops. Anson found the people.

It hits him hard enough that he sits bolt upright in bed.

"Michael?" He can hear the concern in Fi's voice.

He gets up quickly, and turns on the stereo. Fi's music pounds through the loft.

"Management vanished," he whispers to her.

"Yes."

"Anson said Management didn't want me for this."

"Yes."

"Anson told me he talked to my father. Talked to him a lot. Talked to him so much he got suspicious about what was going on. Anson killed my father." Fi inhales, ready to say something about that, but he keeps talking fast, not wanting to focus on that. "That was thirteen years ago, Fi. I didn't get burned for eight more years at that point. Because Management didn't want me. He knew Fi. He knew I'd destroy them. He could see that I'd kill this organization. Five years ago, I think Management decided he wanted out.

"That's why he vanished. That's why he finally agreed to me.  He wanted to kill the monster he gave birth to. Think about it. At any time, when I was becoming too much trouble to be worth it, he could have had me killed, or stuck in prison. He had me in prison, and yet I still got out. No... This was intentional. Management wanted out. He wanted the organization dead. And he picked me to do it."

Fi thinks about that. "I like it. But, does that mean Anson's using you to rebuild? And if so, are you being used to just get him his resources, or is he grooming you to take Management's place? Does he need someone to run ops for him?"

"I think so. But it won't be me. I don't think he's crazy enough to try to blackmail me into running his organization. Even he knows there are lines I won't cross, and that I'll make his ops fail. No, he's using me to get into a position where he can find a new Management."

"So, knowing that, what can we do with it?"

"I don't know. Not yet. But I think this is important. I think this is the key to getting to him."

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