C. Paradee - Deep Cover

She quickly approached the bed, laid her gun on the nightstand, and knelt beside the bed. "Shelby. It's okay. Wake up."

"No!" Shelby thrashed, fighting the bedcovers, and when Kris laid a hand on her shoulder trying to wake her, she jerked away, the nightlight illuminating tears on her face.

Kris wrapped her arms around Shelby, moved onto the edge of the bed, and lifted the smaller woman into a half sitting position, tucking her firmly against her own body. "Shelby, wake up. You're safe. I've got you."

As Shelby started to calm in her arms, she continued her quiet assurances. "It's okay. You're safe. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Jonathan's enraged face began fading as Shelby drifted toward consciousness, her fear replaced by a strong feeling of comfort and safety. Her eyes fluttered open and she realized Kris was sitting on the bed gently rocking her back and forth.

Kris looked into the puzzled emerald eyes gazing at up at her. "You were having a nightmare."

Shelby nodded. "I haven't had one of those for years. Thanks for waking me up."

"It's the least I could do. I'm sorry, Shelby. I had no business asking you what I did today."

"It's not your fault. I think with everything that has been happening, my defenses were down."

Kris released Shelby. "You should get some sleep."

Shelby grasped her arm. "Wait. Would you stay in here? Just for a little while. I know I'm just being a baby, but please?"

"Sure." Kris thought of her own all too frequent nightmares. "You're not being a baby. Nightmares are hell."

Kris sat on the bed next to Shelby until the faint light of dawn appeared in the sky, ready to vanquish her demons should they reappear. Then she silently moved back to the couch in the living room, lying down to catch a quick hour of sleep.

Shelby sat at her desk the next morning and decided to broach the subject of her mother's invitation. "Hey, Kris." When the operative looked at her, she asked, "My mother invited us to dinner Sunday. Want to go?"

Even though she hadn't met Shelby's mother, she already strongly disliked her. In her mind, any mother who allowed her children to be abused should be severely castigated right along with the actual abuser. Kris raised an eyebrow until it disappeared behind a thick covering of bangs. "Us?"

"Yeah. I told her you had transferred in to work on a case with me and were staying at my house. I figured she'd just forget about dinner until after you left. Wrong. I think she's curious about who I work with."

Kris nodded. "Okay." It would be interesting to meet Shelby's mother. She also knew her options would have been limited if the analyst had insisted on going, and was glad that she'd been given a choice.

Shelby smiled broadly. "Oh good! Thanks!"

Kris grinned at Shelby's enthusiasm and turned back to her monitor, just biding her time until lunch. She wanted to meet with her contact immediately, but had no means to relay a message except through one of the drops. The quickest way, short of using the telephone number she'd gotten from Markov, would be using the emergency drop in Georgetown and leaving her cell phone number.

Her priority right now was to get the Russians to quit following her. The chance to deal with Sergei AKA Dimitri would come soon enough. She also wanted to eliminate the slight possibility that Markov had acted independently of his superiors and shot at them, but that didn't feel right. She was convinced someone else was targeting Shelby.

Kris thought about her meeting with Earl that morning. They had found the bullet, but it was unrecognizable when they finished digging it out of the blacktop. It would take a couple of days for their lab to determine what type of weapon it was fired from. She and Earl had jointly decided not to continue the additional surveillance because of the lack of CIA jurisdiction domestically. Kris had been secretly relieved, because she had no choice but to set up a meeting with her contact on the apartment grounds. Her only other option, one that she refused to entertain, would have been to leave Shelby alone.

"I'm going to lunch. I'll be back shortly."

"Want any company?"

Another time, another place, yes. Not here and not now. "If I wasn't going to take care of some business, I'd love it. How about Monday?"

"Okay." Shelby hadn't expected to be invited along, but Kris' words warmed the cool office air even as she speculated where the operative was going this time.

HE PRESSED A memory button on his cell phone as he drove toward Arlington, and waited for it to be answered. "Did you get it?"

"No. And I don't know if I'm going to be able to."

"Why not? It's not like I asked you to do anything difficult."

"I can't find out without being obvious. Come on. I've already told you everything I know. I don't want to raise any suspicions. It might jeopardize what I'm doing for both of us."

"That has nothing to do with this."

"I know, but you worry me when you get so obsessed. Are you coming over tonight?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll call you later." Disgusted, the tall man broke the connection, tossing his cellular phone onto the passenger seat.

Kris helped Shelby unpack the groceries, following her instructions on where to put the things that had to be placed in the upper row of cupboards. "Think you got enough food?" she asked facetiously.

Grinning, Shelby said, "Well, I wanted to make sure we didn't run out of anything. It's not like my life has been very routine lately. Who knows when I'll get another chance to go shopping?"

Kris laughed. "I don't think you'll have to worry about it for a long time, now."

"You helped pay. So that makes you an accomplice."

Quirking a half smile, Kris said, "Couldn't see myself letting you spend a month's salary on groceries."

"Very funny!"

"Just calling it the way I see it."

The rest of the evening passed comfortably as the two women spent it enjoying each other's company. The conversation was easy and relaxed as they watched TV and explored their mutual interests. Boundaries were unconsciously disregarded, with both of them relishing each tidbit of information the other chose to share, and committing even the smallest morsels to memory.

Right on schedule, Shelby awakened from her sleep and sat up, the darkness of her bedroom broken only by the light of the bedside lamp. She'd been determined to wake up before Kris, and fell asleep the previous night while silently chanting, 'Wake up at five,' over and over again. Although she rarely used it, her internal alarm clock never failed her.

Postponing all but the essentials of her wakeup routine in the bathroom, she continued silently to the kitchen. It was going to be hard enough not to wake Kris, and Shelby didn't intend to make any unnecessary noise.

She knew the operative was always up by five-thirty, so her timing should be just about right. Fifteen minutes later, finished with her advance preparations, Shelby put the bacon in the microwave, set the timer and took one last look at the table to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied, she tiptoed into the living room and gazed at Kris.

The tall woman was sleeping all scrunched up on her side, the pillow and her feet pressed against opposite arms of the couch. How can you sleep like that? Shelby was startled when alert blue eyes opened, meeting her own gaze. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"I thought you were sleeping."

"I was." Kris smiled. "It smells good in here."

"Thanks." Shelby was still trying to figure out how anyone could be totally alert when they woke up. "But you woke up, awake."