Scars of the past

Puzzle

I took a deep breath lost in that moment, I kissed him and it was still like the first after those three years, my heart was racing, I felt like it was going to flood me with emotion. Gradually the kiss became more intense, his hands went over my ass and I bit his bottom lip hard, I wanted to undress him right there. A fuse of logic hit me and I had to pull George away from me. We were panting and stared at each other for a few seconds.

"I don't understand how I managed to stay away from you, all this time." I said while catching my breath.

"Me either." George replied with his index finger over his mouth and his hand resting on his chin, it was his thinking pose. "And to think that this idiot could have caused all of this, he could be responsible for keeping us way."

"He may be responsible for keeping me at the agency, but why?"

"What's changed since you got back?"

"I came back, I relocated my old team and my parents are more present in my life and with the twins."

"But he didn't know you were pregnant, so the twins and their parents are out of the equation for now. Your old team, what were you working on?"

"Clark was in the agency's cyber section, but he works for other teams, and Angus and Angelic were on the Delta team, investigating... contract killings."

"Hints for hire."

George's words made me feel like my chest was ripping apart, everything was falling into place.

A thought took over me, my stomach lurched again, I didn't say a word I just marched towards my father, with eyes full of tears.

"Dad, wasn't it Henry who strategized my mission with Mahamud?"

"Yes was him, he insisted, in fact he organized almost all of your missions." My dad replied with confusion in his eyes, turning his head to the side trying to understand.

"Do you think he sent me on Mahamud's mission on purpose? Was he the one who had me trapped, being tortured for all that time?"

"Nina, I can't believe he would do that." My father was always emotional, he trusted people, until the last, my mother was the reason.

"Well, I don't doubt it, and I'm going to investigate this thoroughly, you two are going to have dinner, it's late, you need to eat."

My head was spinning, I couldn't even think about eating.

"I'm not really hungry, but I'm going to feed the twins. I brought their food."

I walked to the suitcase and got the lunchboxes that were frozen in the thermal bag, I had even forgotten to put them in the fridge before, until I heard a familiar laugh. As I turned around I saw George laughing a lot.

"You haven't changed a bit. You always refused to eat when you were involved in something, any more interesting case was the reason you lost your hunger."

He sucked in a breath, and grabbed his coat from the chair.

"But I always made you eat anyway, I'm going down to get something for dinner."

"None of that, you two are forbidden to leave this room until we resolve this." My mother said, taking his coat and putting it on the chair again. "Manne is going to get something."

Manne was my mother's most trusted agent, they served together and he already took a bullet for her, I always suspected a platonic love there, I didn't want to trust anyone, after Henry's mistrust, but Manne was very sensible and reliable, so it was worth the risk.

I went back to heating my children's meals, and sitting on the sofa in the adjoining room, I prepared to feed them.

"Can I try?"

George was kneeling beside them, I knew he was holding back tears, and it pained me to know that he already loved them so much and had never even fed them.

"Of course."

I handed the plate into his hands, and for a few minutes there was dead silence in that room, even my parents stopped their investigation to observe. George, a little clumsy, separated the portions of puree and peas with a spoon and handed them to their mouths, which made a huge mess with it all, but I let him, it was a moment for them alone. After the initial seconds George didn't contain it and I could see some tears running down his face, but he soon covered it up. Anyone would find the scene normal, but I knew all that meaning, I knew all the story, and I wanted them to connect as best as possible, it was beautiful to watch. Alisson saw his tears.

"Are you sad Daddy?"Alisson asked him.

"No sweetheart, I'm happy, really happy" George answered when he keep cleaning his tears.

I let him keep going, but after a while I forced myself to help, he still needed training.

Manne showed up with two aluminum foil lunchboxes, I wasn't hungry, but as soon as I opened the packages the smell took over the room and made me hungry, I finished feeding the twins and my mother offered to bathe them while we ate. And I confess that it was even strange to have dinner with George after all that time. The food was wonderful and we caught up, just him telling me that Wallace was a father again, Teddy had started dating and Sara missed me so much, I remembered how many times I wanted to just call her and vent, but any contact with them was getting me closer to George and I couldn't risk it.

I went to check on the twins after dinner and they were asleep already, they usually do after a shower but I felt that George couldn't kiss him goodnight. My mother had already slept with them, my father continued the search for evidence, when he saw us he turned around, saying:

"We need to cancel the lecture."

"I also think. Could you issue a release?" I answered.

"Wait.... The lecture would only be tomorrow afternoon, right? Let's wait until tomorrow noon, if we don't get anything by then, we'll cancel. But who knows, maybe we can use that to our advantage." George seemed to have something in mind already.

"I agree." My father consented. "I'm going to end the search for today, tomorrow we'll resume the investigation and put an end to it."