"This is bull." Marshall grumbled, sliding into the seat across from Fionna in the hospital cafeteria. She laughed. "What, they don't have awful coffee here?"
Marshall made a face at her. "Why can no one ever let that go? No, I meant about Moon Moon and the one whose parents hated him. We were doing well with our jobs! No one ever took James Bond off the case!""Bond never got hurt." Fionna pointed out, gesturing to her bandaged side.
Marshall sighed. "Dang, that's right... how are you holding up?"
"I feel like I could only take on a group of four at the moment." Fionna poked her side, annoyed.
"So... not good then?" Marshall asked, peering around the table at her.
Fionna nodded miserably. "I can't wait for this to be over."He cleared his throat, and she hurriedly tried to backtrack. "Not you! Just... Penelope, and being hurt, and stuff like that."
"What are we going to do when this is over?" He asked softly.
She looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?""It's already... basically over..." He said quietly. "And when we're both discharged, you go back to the FBI headquarters and go on another mission, and so do I. And we never see each other again. So all this... the holding each other, the being ready to die together... that all goes to waste."
"Well, you've got to have breaks sometime, right?" Fionna asked nervously.
He just stared at her. "Fi... we got lucky enough to meet each other this once, but it's never going to happen again if we both keep our jobs like this.""I guess... everyone has to go sometime. No one's immortal, at least." Fionna smiled sadly.
"Well... if I could spend eternity with anyone, it would be you." Marshall smiled.
Fionna laughed, softly at first, but it quickly grew stronger. "You're still... so corny." She got out between laughs.
He reached across the shoulder and poked her shoulder. "Hey. I'm trying to be romantic here.""No one says stuff like that." Fionna giggled. "You sound like a hero in some soap opera or romantic novel where everybody's ripping off their clothes half the time with some name like, 'Falling in Love with the Secret Duke'."
"Oh, you read a lot of that kind of thing?" Marshall teased.
"No!" Fionna laughed. "But Cake does.""Ohhhh. Cake does. Riiiiight." Marshall grinned.
Fionna grinned back, though a blush tinged her cheeks. "What? It's true. They're not mine, and I don't read that stuff. It's too mushy. Every conversation they have is like, 'oh, you're my own true love, let's have tier 15 in this nearby pile of hay'."
Marshall snorted with laughter. "Okay, okay, wait. What's tier 15?"Fionna shifted in her seat. "You know... sex...?"
He smiled at her. "You're too embarrassed to say, 'sex'? Wait, did you and the fiance ever...?"
She blushed. "Yeah, but it's...! Look, you were a honeypot. It was more of a thing for you!"
"Oh that's so cute, Fi. And your little code thing is adorable. And handy. I'm going to appropriate it."
"Planning on finding other girls already?" Fionna asked. The mood instantly saddened again."Well... I'm not going to live alone with a cat for the rest of my life, Fi." Marshall replied softly.
"Um... yeah..." She said, before rising. "Look, Marshall, you were right. This probably isn't going to work. I-I... let's not make this harder on ourselves. See you around?"
"Fionna, that's not what I meant." He sighed, following her. "I just... not yet, please. We're not done yet.""And staying longer isn't going to be harder?"
"You know that quote, 'it's better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all'? It's like that, Fi."
She took a deep breath. "The thing is, Marshall, I've already lost someone like that. And, when I was with you, it wasn't always on my mind that he was gone. I'm not ready to lose someone like that so soon again, and it's just going to get worse the more I'm with you, and..." Here she trailed off, before pushing past him towards the exit.Marshall didn't follow her, instead turning to the people who were staring at them. "Here's your damn soap opera."
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Penelope swiveled in her chair to face the uniformed men in front of her. "Thank you all for coming down from Connecticut. Now, we have a very specific mission. The retrieval of one Margarita Flores, now known as Margaret Walsingham. These packets will be slipped into the drinks of high-ranking intelligence officers," Here, she gestured to neatly wrapped individual packets of Project Connecticut on the desk in front of her. "And we will rendezvous on the roof the holding facility. Once everyone has been accounted for in some way, we will proceed to a safe house where we will talk about our new plan."
"And what would that be?" One of the men asked.
Penelope cracked her neck. "Do you know when the next G20 conference is? We should have enough of the formula created for the most powerful people in the world. Once they are in our... care... there will be no future problems for our organization. I originally didn't want to choose this path, but as they now have Margaret, it appears that I have no choice.""Why is this one woman so important?" Someone else asked.
Penelope's stood up, and walked over slowly to the man who had spoken. "Imagine, if you will, that your significant other, or some other relation, were taken from you, and that it was all your fault. Now, I want you to imagine the feeling of being torn apart by rabid wild dogs who have not been fed in weeks. The latter of those statements will very quickly become the reality for you if you continue to ask stupid questions. Is that clear?"The men all nodded profusely, before taking the packets and filing out of the room. Penelope leaned back, exhaling. "Alright, this is going to go well..."
YOU ARE READING
Coffee For Two (FioLee)
Fiksi PenggemarFionna is an FBI agent. Marshall works for the CIA. Both of them have infiltrated a seemingly inconspicuous coffee shop disguised as employees to see if there's something more. But will they find the world-renowned villain... or something better...