[RP] Ringing in my Ears... and an Echo in my Heart

[my_strappyshoes]

It had been a state of constant panic since they had recieved word that Sloane had planned on taking care of everything, and everything included APO and the surrounding areas. The tunnels were being evacuated as quickly as possible, and APO was at a level red status. She had heard over comms that Tom had found the bomb, but that was the last she had heard from him. As more and more people emerged from below the streets her eyes darted amongst the crowd searching for any sign of Tom.

Shrugging off yet another medical team member insistant on checking her out she spotted Dixon coming up through the crowd. Pushing past complete strangers she made her way up to Dixon, "Tom! Where's Tom? He found the bomb, but... where is he?" Her voice was as strained as her emotions were. All her worry clearly expressed in her pale blue eyes. Dixon's hand gripped her upper arm in a supportive gesture as his eyes locked with hers.

"Tom found the bomb in the abandoned tunnel, it's set in an empty car, but he can't disarm it. He's going to slow the countdown with liquid oxygen and -" Rachel cut him off knowing exactly how he was planning on proceeding.

"That only buys him a few seconds at a time! What is he planning on doing? Staying down there?" Dixon didn't need to answer, she saw the reply in his hesitation. She looked beyond Marcus hoping that Tom had changed his mind, that the hero's death he was seeking was a foolish one, and that he had come to his sense. "Time.. Dixon! How much time was on the timer??" She gripped Dixon's arms firmly nearly shaking him into telling her.

"When I left he had four minutes... he said he'd leave when he had a minute left on the timer," That was all she needed to know, releasing her grip on him she pushed him aside and took off full sprint back into the tunnels. "Rachel it's not enough time!!" She barely heard Dixon yelling after her all she heard was her heart pounding in her chest, echoing into her ears. The closer she got to the tunnel the more frustrated she got with Tom's choice to stay down there. It wasn't his time, not this way. Whatever self-sacrifice he had planned she knew he wasn't going to walk out with a minute left on the timer. The evacuation was taking longer than they thought, and she knew Tom wouldn't want that on his conscious.

No matter how much he learned about the death of his wife, it was still something that was going to haunt him, it was still something he was going to accept the blame for. As she rounded another corner leading her deeper into the tunnels she glanced to her watch and heard Dixon over the comms say that everyone was making their way out of the tunnels, and telling Tom to get out of there. She could hear Tom responding and faintly heard it echo from the tunnel just ahead of her.

"Patch me through to Rachel?"

She heard Tom's request clear as day from the stalled subway car just a few yards in front of her. Her pace which had been a full sprint most the way down there slowed up just before she made it to the doorway. Slightly out of breath her hand clasped around the framing of the jammed open doors.

"You'll have to deal with me face to face instead."

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[idontspar.livejournal.com]

Spray and wait...spray and wait...the tension was pulling itself into a delicate, shining thread which his whole life seemed to be stretching out across, winding around it and spreading thin over its surface.

What really bothered him was the fact that when he looked at it, that fine and fragile length, he didn't add to its shine...he tarnished it.

He knew he wasn't going to make it out of here...but the reason made it all okay. He was here to help...God knew how many. And that made it all okay...a few thousand lives to make up for one. It wasn't enough...that he knew. It would never be enough.

But it was close...and it was good.

He felt oddly calm...but not peaceful, death wouldn't give him peace because something still hurt. Only now it hurt worse, eating into his *soul* with slow, deliberate intent.

Cool blue eyes, a soft, husky voice...and a kiss that ended before it began, buring the scent of vanilla and the taste of fruit into his brain...the second he could've had anything, everything with Rachel, and walked away instead.

Reaching up between doses of liquid nitrogen, trying to ignore how the cold of it was seeping into his fingers and down through his flesh into his bones, he activated his comm. "Patch me through to Rachel?..."

"You'll have to deal with me face to face instead."

Tom spun around, startled by the sound of her voice, oddly loud in the quiet car save for the living monster that was the bomb itself. Just for a second, he couldn't quite register her presence...pale and golden, and nine other kinds of quasi-romantic crap that came from watching too damn many chick flicks with his wife, he was sure.

Then he forgot her long enough to remember the bomb.

"Rachel, what the *hell* are you doing down here?!" he snapped sharply, dark eyes blazing with anger that was borne out of fear.

[my_strappyshoes]

There had only been so many minutes in her lifetime that she could count where she could make a difference to someone else. Those minutes, spaced so far and few between suddenly seemed pointless as she stood there a few feet from what could be the end of her. The bomb was more than big, it had the appearance of a catastrophe written across the reflective metal cannisters. Tom had done the brave thing, what probably felt like the right thing, but the time for being a hero had long faded.

"What the hell am I doing down here? Why the hell aren't you heading back to the streets by now? You heard them, the area's clear except for you and now me. So you either slow that timer one last time and head out of here with me? Or I die with you."

Folding her arms across her chest she let her hip jut to the side a bit in a stance that mirrored her expression of 'try-me or die-trying'. Her eyebrow arched up a bit to punctuate her steely gaze dead set into the anger in his eyes.

[idontspar.livejournal.com]

For a moment, Tom was struck dumb...but that didn't last long. Registering the fact that the area was clear, and then the fact that Rachel had stormed down here to...*collect* him...Tom finally realized the look on her face was that 'eat shit and die' scowl she tried so hard to pull off and failed at, miserably.

This time, however, she was damn close to actually making it work.

Looking down at the liquid nitrogen in his hand, then at the timer, he watched the red LED lights switch from 1:00 to 0:59.

Cursing under his breath, he leaned over and sprayed the timer one more time, then dropped the nitrogen as he turned and started stalking towards her. Reaching out to grab her hand, for a moment he felt like he was grabbing something else...something bigger. Like a rope being lowered into a hole, pulling him out...

"Let's beat it." he commanded as he tugged her along. "We still might die anyway."

[my_strappyshoes]

She watched his eyes flicker toward the counter that had just fallen below the sixty second window he promised Dixon he would take advantage of. Feeling her stomach nearly drop to her toes she wondered just when he was actually going to start moving again, moving away from the impending explosion would be a good thing.

The curse word was expressed and the final blast to slow the timer sent off. His movements fueled by a bit of anger quicked as his grip tightened around her hand. It took her a moment to slip out of the moment of panic she had fallen into, and the jerking of her arm had jarred her enough to make her realize this was not a time for slacking.

As they ran through the seemingly endless maze of tunnels she had to wonder why it didn't feel this far away when she had headed down there. In her mind she had been counting, but every once in a while she had skippped ahead. There was a small amount of light up ahead and she knew they could make it. In her mind though she had just counted to fifty three, and they timer was going to go off any moment.

"Tom! The blast is gonna go!" He wasn't that far ahead of her and her long strides were trying to keep up with him. He glanced back behind his shoulder reaching his hand out for her one final time. Her fingers extending outward slipped into his as her stride caught up with his.

As they felt the ground begin to tremble, his hand was wrapped tightly to hers guiding her out of the darkness and into the blinding light outside. It was the brightest thing she had seen, and she nearly felt her heart stop.

They kept running away from the shaking ground and the warmth that was building up behind them. As they finally stopped near an ambulance that was patching up a woman Rachel had seen only once before at work, she turned to watch the entire center square collapse into the subway system below.

The sight took her breath away for a moment, and the small lump in her throat wasn't going anywhere either. Glancing away from the wreckage she looked to the ground, letting her line of sight catch the fact that her hand was still clasped to Toms. Exhaling a bit of relief combined with stress she tightened her grasp around his fingers briefly, while turning her attention back to what used to be their place of work.

[idontspar.livejournal.com]

The moment they emerged into the light, Tom tugged her arm hard to haul her against him as he ran for all he was worth, an arm around her shoulders keeping her beside him until they reached an ambulance...safe harbor.

When Rachel turned, Tom kept his arm around her, instinctively pulling her against him as the ground shook with the explosion, the square collapsing into a massive crater where the station had once been.

He wasn't even quite aware of her fingers tightening in his...or even that their hands were still linked...it felt too natural to be given much consideration.

All he saw was what used to be their offices...and what had nearly been his tomb.

Suddenly remembering what he'd wanted to say to Rachel when he thought he was going to die, he turned to look down at her. "Will you go out with me?"

[my_strappyshoes]

As the numbness started to fade from her she felt the firm grip of Tom's arm still holding her close to him, and as he glanced down to her she was still looking outward at what had been her fate only moments ago. Her breathing was still staggered a bit, and tears that had been bordering on spilling onto her cheeks still hadn't fallen.

She heard him ask her, but it hadn't actually made it to her coherent part just yet. She still was locked on the sight of where she had been moments ago. Where her desk was, but wasn't anymore. She felt Tom shift around her a bit snapping her back to reality, and his mouth press to the top of her head.

Taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes a bit she tried to block out the sounds of the sirens and people calling out to each other. Stopping the world around her from remaining so chaotic was all she wanted, and the sound of Tom breathing against her hair was helping. Although it wasn't helping her answer his question, even though her actions should have been a dead give away.

Leaning against him slightly she pulled her head back away from his mouth, and looked up at him with all the trust and compassion she had left in her, "Yes."

[idontspar.livejournal.com]

With his adrenaline starting to fade just a little, the simple, honest 'yes' from Rachel's lips, and the fact that he was, in fact, very much *not* dead, Tom felt just the slightest bit giddy...just enough to make him grin and laugh quietly, then harder.

He ought to kiss her...that's what happened in moments like this, right? Saw it in the movies every day...but it was just too damn cliche, and it didn't feel like it would *mean* enough, not right now.

So he hugged her instead...turned her in his arms to face him with slow, deliberate intent, wrapped his arms around her waist, and lifted her clear off the ground, head buried in her shoulder as the laughter continued to rise from deep in his chest and shake his shoulders. His shoulders...he could feel the sun on his shoulders, warm and airy for the first time since he'd taken up residence in LA. Rachel smelled good, and the air smelled good when he filled his lungs with it past the scent of Rachel's perfume...every smoggy, humid lungful was a delight.

Maybe it was the fact he had a date. Maybe it having an armful of said date-to-be, warm and squirming and laughing and quite possibly even squealing at him, he wasn't really listening....or maybe it was touching death a little more intimately than he ever had on any deep cover op.

Either way...he was feeling *really* goddamn good.

[my_strappyshoes]

She was thrown almost off balance for a moment as he turned her into himself, and when she felt her toes lift off the ground she wanted to rebalance herself again, but as soon as the sensation came it faded, and the sense of stability and security took over her. When his shoulders began to shake a bit from his laughter her own smile spread wide across her face, she had barely heard Tom laugh, in fact he hardly cracked a smile in her presence. If near death put this much light into him she was almost tempted to threaten him weekly, just for this brand of reception.

Still lifted off the ground his laughter was becoming a bit infectious she found herself laughing along with him. Trying a bit to get him to ease her back on the ground she was pressing slighty on his shoulders trying to give him some sort of signal that she was done being off the ground.

As his laughter started to fade and hers as well she felt his grip around her waist ease up and allow her to slip through his arms back onto the ground, her eyes still dancing a bit with that wide-eyed happiness that she felt only moments ago looked up into his.

"So this date, no explosions, or wigs, or ancient prophecies allowed okay?"

[idontspar.livejournal.com]

As Rachel slid from his arms, Tom had to smile at her wisecrack. He nodded, reaching up to rub the back of his neck, which was still knotted with leftover tension. "I'll go ya one better...no sidearms required." he quipped. "Think you can handle the calm? I mean, now that you're Super Spy Chick and all..."

[my_strappyshoes]

She wanted to hit him hard for that one, and it might have hurt too since she did know all those ways to kill a man, but instead she just shook her head and tipped her chin down a bit away from his stare. Laughing a bit again she glances up to him, "I am not Super Spy Chick, sure I saved your ass, but I figured I owed you 'one rescue from explosion' and I wasn't about to let you get out of that coffee with me again." She smirked at him playfully, knowing that she was probably inching toward getting a smack of her own.

Still close to him she shifted her weight onto one foot and nudged into him a bit, "Besides you got to be the hero, and will you look at that! So did I, though I have a feeling this is far from over. If this was just one part of his plan? There's bound to be more, and I'm just glad I didn't lose the guy that's supposed to save my ass if I get in too deep."

[idontspar.livejournal.com]

Tom snorted, allowing himself to be nudged and elbowed...at the moment, he was in too good a mood to swat her back.

"Is that all I am to you? A coffee date-slash-knight in shining armor?" he joked, "You better be careful, Gibson...I might start to feel cheap. Tawdry, even."

[my_strappyshoes]

"Tawdry? Well, well well Mister Grace, you'll make a woman blush here." Chewing on her lower lip a bit she looked back up at him, "You know you did leave me at the most inopportune time, you don't think I'll let you get away with that again do you? Maybe I'd prefer to keep you closer," Trying to not get hit or swatted away she pushed away her instinct to nudge into him again and instead leaned against him resting her head upon his chest lightly. "Because we both know that this isn't over."

Trying not to kill their lighter mood, but she was well aware of just what they had just walked out of alive, and wondered just what else waited for them before the day was over.

[idontspar.livejournal.com]

Tom was a little surprised by the way she leaned into him for a moment, head on his chest, and had the craziest urge to bury his face in her hair, to see if it was as soft as it looked...

Instead he reached up, laying a hand against the back of her neck, letting that hair brush the back of his hand...yeah, definitely soft. For a moment, he just let it rest there before giving her nape a gentle squeeze, urging her to look up at him.

"No," he agreed quietly, "it's not over." He paused, meeting her gaze meaningfully as he shook his head slightly. "None of it." And it wasn't...not only Prophet Five and every other fucked-up mess that lay ahead...but after today, Tom knew that this thing between them...

He didn't know if he was well and truly ready for it yet...but he knew he couldn't shake it if he tried.

And frankly, he didn't really *want* to.