Guts Over Fear ◇ NIKITA

Pep-Talk

As it happens, the police believed Noah's death to be caused by a botched robbery, as Alys told them a few things were missing; a laptop, some other tech, and some jewlery. She didn't tell them about the particular missing item that bugged her the most. She had stolen the ring from her father at a young age, the red Zetrov logo carved into the silver band and her initials on the inner band, she kept it after all these years as a reminder.

It was that item alone that pointed her towards Division. Amanda knew who her father was, it wouldn't surprise her if Percy knew as well.

Part of Alys's cover had been meeting Noah's family, they were kind enough to empart her with a small amount of his ashes after his cremation, so she wore him around her wrist, her fingers running over the metalic blue, heart-shaped ocean scene jar on an otherwise empty charm bracelet.

"I look good on you," Noah hummed him her ear, protectively resting his hand on the middle of her chest as he kissed her shoulder.

"You shouldn't be in this place," she whispered out, staring at the walls of her room in Division; her home was an active crime scene after all. "You should have never been dragged into this."

"Hey," he whispered, turning Alys over so he looked her in the eye. "I wanted to learn who you were, despite you telling me not to. If anything, it's my fault I ended up like this," he assured as he put his hand over the charm bracelet.

"That's not true at all," the blonde scolded, holding his wrist firmly. "I knew it was dangerous when I met you, but I was selfish and I'm the reason you're gone." Noah gently wiped the tears off her face and shook his head.

"I'm glad you were selfish. Everything was so boring until you came along." Then he began to slowly fade from her memory - her heart breaking all over again. She blinked a few times to clear her vision and groaned when she was met with the hash red light of her alarm clock reading 4:57. Not knowing what to do with herself and not wanting to cause anyone alarm, she just laid in bed, gently smoothing her fingers over Noah's charm.

She had turned away from the clock and door and stayed like that for a few hours, not even moving when someone let themself into her room. "You can't just stay in bed all day, you know," Birkhoff sighed as he walked over to her and sat next to her. "Amanda might start to worry."

"The last thing he said to me was that he loved me," she mumbled out, her eyes unable to produce any more tears. With a light sigh, Birkhoff gingerly moved so he was spooned into her, cautiously running his hand over her head, like he hadn't comforted anyone before.

"That doesn't surprise me," he mumbled as he tried to diffuse her heartache. "You're easy enough to like." The corner of Alys's mouth breifly pulled back in a smile, but it fell back into place as she stared at the wall and fingered her charm still.

"I didn't say it back to avoid all this, but it happened anyway," she muttered, her face pulled in pain. "Someone cleaned him."

"Aly, if he were cleaned, you wouldn't have seen them pull his body out of your house," Birkhoff pointed out softly. "Cleaners are called cleaners for a reason."

"He was a well-known civilian, he couldn't just disappear like everyone else," Alys pointed out. "I know it was Division." He sighed again, he seemed to do it often when he was near the blonde, like his charisma ran a bit short with her.

"Nothing came through Ops," he informed with a firm voice. "Nothing on the servers except for his death certificate on your file. He was just another blip."

"He was much more than a blip, Birkhoff," Alys scolded, a strength to her voice she hadn't had in a few days. "He died for getting involved with me, he deserves more than a photocopied piece of paper lost in a system of ghosts." She took a deep breath and quickly released it, her anger upsetting the rhythm. But, when Birkhoff remained silent, she sighed and turned herself over until she rested against his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm not angry at you."

"How could you be?" he scoffed.

"Because you're an arrogant prick," she grumbled, a smile evident in her voice.

"But you can't live without me," he chuckled.

"Yeah, okay, Shadow Walker."

It went quiet after a minute, and then Seymour tugged gently on her arm. "Hey," he whispered.

"Hmm?" she breathed, looking up at him with a pink twinge to her eyes.

"We'll find out who did this, alright?" Alys's cheeks pulled up in a small smile and she nodded, grateful she at least had someone to pick up her pieces with her. "Think you could use the Eye?"

Solemnly, she shook her head. "Percy has to authorize it first and he hasn't left me alone with it long enough to learn how to bypass it," she mumbled into his chest. "And I can't just ask him to use it. He would've been the one to authorize the cleaning."

"If you kept the Backdoor open, I should be able to get in from Ops," he suggested, causing Alys to push off his chest and gave Birkhoff a stern frown.

"There's always someone in Ops, you'd never get the chance. You were already an involentary mole, I won't make you a real one," she insisted, seriousness laced deep into her expression. "We got lucky Percy didn't cancel you this time."

"Percy, 'needs' me. He'd never cancel me and he'd be bluffing if he said he would," Birkhoff scoffed, his disbelief obvious

"You sound so confident."

"That's 'cause I know Percy," he argued. "If you take out the only guy capable of tech support, you'll burn in hot oil."

"There is always me," Alys reminded. "And we both know he'd never let me slip through his fingers." Birkhoff raised a brow and she rolled onto her back, still not breathing quite right. "My father thinks I'm dead, so Percy's holding me as some sort token to ensure the peace. Amanda know's who I am, I wouldn't doubt he did too."

"Don't worry about Ops, you have to survive debriefing with her. And if you're gunna do that, you need to keep that part between us, got it?" Alys nodded, trusting his firm look. She knew Birkhoff knew what he was doing, and if he trusted himself, she did too.

"I need to hear you say it, Al." Birkhoff pleaded, furrowing his brows and holding her shoulder with a tight grip.

She gave him a look, "You know you can trust me, Nerd." A small tug on the corner of her lips made her speak up. "Just don't crash my system." She rolled over and squeezed him tightly, gently kissing his cheek after he returned the embrace. "Let's get to work, Tech Support," she chuckled.