Running Away

Chapter 9

It was around 11:30 that night and there was complete silence at Elias and Preston's place. A part of the agency protocol requires agents to be on what is kind of like a house arrest for 24-48 hours after extractions. This gives dispatch teams a chance to mitigate risk during an aerial scan of a radial area. In the past agents have been killed shortly after extractions, so policy was changed to keep them indoors until given clearance.

Unfortunately that meant it was unsafe for Sera and Bryan to leave as well. Elias threw back another shot of whiskey as he leaned against the countertop. He didn't know how he was going to survive the next day with Bryan in his space.

On the other end Sera was going through intense regret for ever letting herself for ever coming to Italy in the first place. It was a complete nightmare. In her mind, it was a vacation designed by the devil himself. She sat on the couch with her arms crossed on her chest, staring at Elias with fury.

His eyes glanced over to her and then did a double take when he saw her expression. "What?"

"You did this." She said through gritted teeth. "You always do this."

"Alright, here we go." Elias shook his head as he refilled his glass.

"What do you mean 'here we go'? Here we go?! You always do this! All of our vacations weren't really vacations! You would just bring me along your stupid missions and work the whole time! That's so selfish!"

"Fine, I can admit that I didn't plan things out the best in the past. Fair. But Sera, I think you're forgetting...I didn't invite you to Italy. I didn't plan a vacation for you, because I'm not on vacation. Why are you angry at me?"

"Didn't invite me here? You brought me here!" Sera ran a panicked hand through her tresses, "You couldn't just ignore the guy for 20 more minutes?! You just HAD to engage! You HAD to choose yourself!"

"Choose myself? You think the CIA is choosing myself? You think that picking you off a disgusting restaurant floor was choosing myself? I was working a 15-hour day watching a ruthless mob boss, and risked my f****** cover to get your *** of the ground. You think that was choosing me?"

Bryan stood up from the dining table, he wanted to call out Elias for raising his voice at Sera. Elias shot him a look and it sent a chill up Bryan's spine. He promptly sat back down.

Sera felt furious with Elias and she just wanted to be on a planet by herself. "So that's really all you have to say?"

Elias let out a breath, "I don't know what you want me to tell you."

"Of course you don't, you never do." Sera ran a fidgety hand through her hair. "And you never care about how I feel."

Elias had to bite his tongue. He did not know how else he could show her he cared, he felt like he had done everything. Elias picked up his drink and left the room. The sound of the back door opening and shutting echoed.

The room was filled with tension and an unsettling energy. Bryan raised an eyebrow at Sera. It was at this moment when he began to question if she had really moved on from her past relationship.

Sera didn't know what to say, so she avoided eye contact with Bryan. Moments went by in silence before she couldn't take the tension anymore. She felt an inner beckoning from God, to go make things right. Deep down, she knew that it wasn't fair to be so harsh.

She got up from her seat and went straight to the back of the house.

When she opened up the door, she saw Elias sitting on the ground with his back against the wall. He was staring out at the water and drinking, he didn't look in her direction as she came and sat next to him. Sera pulled her knees to her chest and rested her arms around her legs.

Elias sat calmly as he sat quietly, enjoying the peace of the night time silence. Sera scooted close to him. "I want to talk to you."

"Bab–Sera, look. I don't want to argue right now." He exasperatedly sighed. "Not now, okay? I thought what I was doing back then was the best move, but I guess I really f****** things up with you. I don't know what to do about that now, but I'm sorry. I can't turn back time, and for that, I'm not gonna' keep going back and forth about it with you."

"I'm not here to argue with you, either. I'm sorry for snapping on you like that, it wasn't fair."

"It's okay, girl. I'm not trippin'." He shrugged his shoulders. "You're uneasy, I get it."

Grief and regret filled Sera's heart. That was the moment that she realized she still loved him. Silently, she sat and considered if she should tell him about Emilia. "Do you ever wonder what life would be like if we stayed together?"

He shot her a look and then chuckled lightly, he swished around his drink in the cup. "Ain't tweety inside there? Why are you asking me that?"

"I just want to know." She leaned her head back against the wall. "I think about it from time to time. Don't you?"

"Come on, be serious."

"I am! I really do think about you."

"In the last year since we split up, you got engaged and had a baby. You expect me to believe you've been thinking about me?"

"If only you knew". She thought to herself, before speaking out loud again, "Being at home with her gives me lots of time to think, I guess."

"Yeah?" He nodded and took another sip from his drink. "Well I'm glad you had her, I know how important it's been for you to have kids."

Elias thought about the picture he saw in Sera's apartment that night. His mind had been hyper-fixated on the image since he saw it.

Sera interrupted his thoughts by flashing a beautiful smile his way, he felt caught up in her trance. "She's a really sweet girl. Shy but smart. I love her, I love being her mom. I can't wait to go back and see her, this is the longest I've been away from her for."

Elias smiled, he felt like he could share in Sera's joy in that moment. "When this sh*t storm is over, you have to let me meet her. What's her name?"

Sera stiffened up and froze. The courage that she was building to tell Elias was suddenly depleted. She couldn't do it anymore. Sera got up on her feet as Elias confusedly watched her move away from him. "I'm going to head to bed now."

And just like that, Elias was by himself again. He felt confused as to what the change was, he questioned if he had said something wrong. After a few moments of considering what happened, he brushed it off and mentally moved on. Despite the space in his heart Sera still held, he believed that the chapter was permanently closed.

At that moment he decided that as soon as the case closes, he would be renewing his contract. He was coming up on his renewal date, it came up every few years. All this while he planned on taking an internal control job in order to make Sera happier. The plan was to switch out of working in the field, and trade it for the desk job that would at least allow him to be home at the same time every day.

He was going to take that job and use it to give Sera the white picket fence life she always wanted. He wanted to go down her checklist and mark every box for her.

But after she had dumped him everything changed. Elias tossed all those plans aside. After all, what good would a suburban house do if it is always empty?