✏️ The Littlest Spy

17. Strategic

"Louisiana-style linguine," Brock said, when he saw Isadora's gaze on the pot he was stirring. While she was still a little hesitant after letting her inner child play for a while, it seemed that he was completely on the ball. "I wasn't sure when you'd be back to your grown-up self, so I wanted to make sure we had something with a complex enough flavour to delight an adult palate, but still fun to eat for a little kid."

Isadora didn't say anything; she just looked down at the pasta swirling in the sauce. It was so easy to imagine a child inexpertly twirling a fork, being proud of how many noodles she could get coiled up around it. And she thought that it had been a perfect choice. Of course, she wouldn't want to expose a child's taste buds to the complex mix of spices she could smell. But feeling childish or not, it wasn't like her body was changing. She was sure she would have enjoyed it just as much with her head in that childish space. And she thought that Brock might have actually thought about that, analysing this in more detail than Isadora had ever considered.

"Thank you," she mumbled. And that was an understatement for what she was really feeling by several orders of magnitude.

"A big girl now, I see," Brock said, with no trace of judgement or disapproval. "Feeling more confident now?"

"Yeah..." Isadora mumbled. She was even more sure that they needed to talk, but the way he had treated her made her feel so warm inside, she didn't want Brock to think she was ungrateful. She was surprised to learn that her biggest fear right now was discouraging him from coming close to her. The conflict between the way he had been when he saw her at her most vulnerable, and all the things she had heard about him in the past, left her completely unsure what the right thing to say might be at this moment. But she reassured herself that Brock was her partner in a work sense. Not anything more than that. And however good it felt to let him take care of everything, she needed him to know that she was still her own woman. Just because it felt surprisingly good to let him do things for her, that didn't mean she couldn't do all those things herself. "I think we should talk. Seriously, I mean."

"We can do that," Brock answered. "There was one big thing I did want to say, now I think I'm starting to get a handle on this whole regression thing. Over dinner? This is almost ready now, so it's probably easier to wait until I served it up before we talk more."

Isadora nodded, feeling a flush creep up her neck. "Yeah. Thank you, for... for everything. For being so understanding and supportive."

Brock shrugged, turning back to the stove. "Of course. That's what partners do, right? I don't like the idea of taking you into a dangerous situation, but so long as you're here I want to make sure you're effective."

Isadora leaned against the counter, watching as Brock deftly manoeuvred the pasta onto two plates. She knew that she would have to say something about what had happened; they needed to set boundaries. But she wasn't quite sure where to start.

"I've been thinking," Brock said, as he set the plates down on the table and started on his own dinner. "About your little kid stuff. It's already clear that you're less on edge this afternoon. You're more comfortable in yourself, and I suspect that means I could rely on you more. So, what selection of that stuff do you want to take with us on the mission?"

Isadora frowned, caught off guard. That wasn't even something she'd thought about.

"What do you mean?" she said. "I can't take that stuff when we're actually on duty. It's not like I need it, you know? It's just a way to relax. And there'll be plenty of time to unwind when the mission is done."

"I thought about it," Brock said. "And it's just a guess, but I think you would be able to execute your monitor duties more effectively now than you would have last night. Denying yourself something leaves you wishing you could have it, and that will always be a distraction even if you're used to ignoring it. I want you to be at one hundred percent."