Operation: Crimson Space

2 weeks later

Arkady's pov
I looked at Nienke as we drove to her parents house again, I heard her ask "are you excited?" I nodded and said "your parents are an interesting pair." She said "Papa should be on a business trip. Last I got told anyways." I nodded slowly as I kept my eyes on the road just to hear my phone ringing. I hit the accept call button on the steering wheel and heard Taina "we found Deimos." I replied "is this line secure?" She replied "do you think we're amateurs here Kasper? You've been running with us for over a year and still ask." I replied with a small smirk "no reason not too, better safe than sorry." She replied "fair, now onto Deimos. The Night haven researcher you all captured 2 weeks ago has been a goldmine. Turns out Deimos is right where you'd expect him to be." I replied "Germany? Poland?" Nienke replied "England?" Taina said "Italy." I asked "how is that where we'd expect him to be?" She said "it's the middle of the Mediterranean. It lets they operate anywhere in North Africa, the Middle East, Europe or Western Asia." I nodded slowly before saying "never America."
      Taina asked "do you really think he'd be stupid enough to operate in America? You see how our operators react when a strike happens there. It'd be a death sentence." I chuckled softly before saying "I understand you two are on leave. We've got a massive strike on the docket for when you all come back. We end this with this strike." I asked "I'm assuming we're getting support from the other teams?" Taina replied "naturally, everyone wants one of their operators to be the one that puts him under." I replied "we'll be ready." She answered "I know, you two never let me down." I chuckled softly as the line went dead. Nienke looked at me and asked "what do you think happens on this one?" I answered "I think we win." She laughed before saying "ever so confident" I glanced at her before thinking over what my mother said one more time. I opened and closed my mouth a couple times trying to find the words before I saw Nienke looking at me out of the corner of my eye, she had a small smile dancing across her lips and her eyes shone brightly before she said "got something important on your mind?"
I nodded as she asked "are you ready to say it?" I nodded again before she said "then let the words fall out. We'll figure it out after." I watched the car ahead of us as we drove before saying "I'm falling in love with you" she kept looking at me as I watched her pale cheeks flush a rose tint and she said "I love you too." I said "we have a few days off, we should go on a date." She looked at me and said "oh so romantic" teasingly. I looked at her and said "you've met my mother, you knew what you were getting into." She laughed openly before saying "yeah, yeah you're right. But yes, a date sounds wonderful." We drove for a few more hours before we arrived in front of her mother's house. We were staying for a few days so I grabbed our duffel bags, before I pulled mine out I check it to make sure my 416 and a few magazines were in it. I zipped it back up and followed Nienke into the house. Nienke's mother Ana said "hello, hello, welcome home Nienke. How're you honey?"
       She hugged her mother and said "I'm doing well mama, we're about to be busy." She looked between us and said "enough about work yeah? Come, sit. Relax for a bit." I looked at her mother and asked "where can I put our stuff?" She said "upstairs, 2nd door on your right." I slowly made my way upstairs and into the room. Just to realize, that it was nienke's room. I slowly looked around and saw pictures from when she was in college, track and field meets in high school, then I stumbled upon a picture from when we first met. I heard her father "been a long time since those pictures" I looked over and saw him looking at me as I nodded. He said "this is the second time I've seen you with Nienke, visiting us, in the last 2 months. What's going on between you and my daughter?" I heard Nienke around the corner causing her father to tense up "I chose him" I heard her father "are you sure about this?" She spoke pointedly "I know grandpa asked mama the same thing, yes, I'm sure about him." I felt my cheeks flush.
He looked at me and said "alright, I'll give him a chance." I nodded as Nienke said "Mama wants us downstairs. It's almost time for dinner." I watched Daan make his way down the stairs before I saw Nienke walk through the door she looked at the picture in my hand before I said "chose me huh?" She flushed bright red before said "yes, I choose you." I smiled and she said "you should smile more, it's cute." I laughed before saying "Let's not keep your mother waiting." She nodded happily as we made our way downstairs. We sat and talked for a while, Nienke told her parents most of the fun stories from our team playing around together. We talked for a long time forever before I noticed the time and politely excused myself, I walked up to the room and sat in the chair by the window. I watched Dutch citizens jogging and riding their bikes, I silently mused to myself "if only Ukraine could do that again." I heard Anna "Homesick?" I glanced over and said "I miss my country Tak, I miss my mother more." Anna asked delicately "is she.... Still around?" I replied "Yes, she lives in England now."
     Anna sat in the chair across from me and said "Have you thought about visiting her?" I replied "I would if I could get ahold of her. My aunt has said she's been moving around a lot so I can't keep on top of where she's living. It's hard to even get ahold of her, she's been struggling with the phone." Anna nodded slowly before saying "if we can help any let us know. I have family that has moved to England, maybe they'll be able to help." I nodded softly and said "maybe." Anna said "I'm sure she misses you as well. I know I miss my daughter when she's gone." I smiled softly and said "Tak, she looks forward to coming back here a lot." I heard "Anna, dear. Can I have some time with him?" Anna and I looked over and saw Daan standing in the doorway. Anna stood and walked over, stopping and saying something quietly to Daan, before heading downstairs. I stood and straightened as Daan said "relax my boy. Please sit." I carefully sat before Daan said "I bet you think fairly lowly of me no?"
I replied "I can't say I do." He grew a brief look of surprise before saying "you're an interesting man." I asked carefully "is that so?" He replied "yes, you are unlike anyone else my little girl has brought back to us." I asked "how so?" He replied "yes many people she has brought to meet us, none were worthy of her. They did nothing that made them worthy of her. They were urchins, there and nuisances." I nodded slowly before asking "and I am worthy of her?" He replied "my daughter seems to think so, I want to know why." I asked "isn't she the better person to ask that?" He replied "no, I want to know why you think you're worthy of her." I paused before saying "honestly?" He replied with a nod and repeated "honestly." I looked out the window as I carefully thought over my reply. After about a minute I looked at Daan and saw him inspecting me, waiting patiently. I said "honestly, I don't know if I am or not. I can't give you an answer on that question, I can however, promise you I'll never stop trying to be what she needs." He continued to inspect me, his eyes indifferent.
He said "you two met when she was in college no?" I nodded as he asked "did you stay in contact after?" I replied "no, there were long periods where I wasn't able to keep in contact." He asked "so when did you two get back into contact" I replied "a mission for team Rainbow about 15 months ago." He asked "you said you didn't join Team Rainbow until a year ago." I corrected "a little over. My reconnaissance team was attached to the mission since it took place in a city in Ukraine." He said "she was injured about that time. Were you there for it?" I replied "Tak, Tak I was." He asked "can you tell me about what happened?" I replied "she got hit by the enemy, my team, we held the enemy back until Team Rainbow reached the extraction. Once they left, we made our way to the extraction to wait to get pulled out." He replied "sounds like you were playing hero." I looked out of the window and asked "Do you love your country?" He looked at me in interest before saying "yes I do." I asked "do you want to die in your country?"
He gave me an odd look before saying "I'd like to die here yes, I've lived my life here." I said "that's Ukraine for me. She's given me everything, if anyone was going to die on that mission. We Ukrainians, we wanted it to be us. To die for our country, to die for our neighborhoods." He said "very virtuous." I replied "maybe a touch too much." He stood and said "I believe I was wrong about you." I gave him a look and said "only time will tell." He patted my shoulder and said "I see why my daughter chose you." I smiled softly as I heard Nienke "What's this then?" We both turned and saw her leaning against the door frame. Daan said "just getting to know him." Nienke had a look of disbelief before I said "Nie. It's okay, we were just talking." She relaxed before saying "come down. We're playing monopoly." Daan looked at me and said "be careful, Anna is ruthless." I stood and said "I'd expect nothing less from the woman who raised Nienke." He laughed boisterously before saying "you'll settle in with us well." I saw Nienke look at me happily before grabbing my hand and practically dragging me down the staircase.