Mistaken Identity

By Curlly

Part One

Smokey silver eyes regarded orange ones. The oranges ones seem to say, "Move, and there will be scratches were the sun don’t shine, Buster!" The silver eyes seemed apologetic but emphatic, "It is time to go our separate ways. I thought you couldn’t wait to see the back of me."

Sinjn and Curlly had come back from their evening out. He had surprised her with a dinner out on an island. The island was small and part of an estate he owned in the mountains. He lead her threw the gardens covered by moonlight and over a footbridge to the Japanese teahouse where dinner had been laid out. It was a beautiful evening. They had both been working so much lately that they had truly needed this time together before Sinjn took off again.

Sinjn also knew how much Curlly liked a good scary movie. One would think that any operative in Section would find such things dumb and unrealistic, but Curlly got all into them. She would jump, often squeak and emit small screams during their course. So he found one that wasn’t too gory (they had enough gore in their "real lives") and after dinner they returned to CLHQ and settled on one of the teal lazy boys to watch it.

And Curlly had jumped and squealed all right! It always brought a smile to his face to watch her shift and squirm every time the I-AM-COMING-TO-KILL-YOU music would start.

But during the rather mushy love scene Curlly had fallen asleep. Sinjn’s right hip was against the right side of the chair and Curlly was sitting next to him. Only her legs were thrown over his with an arm around his waist. The chair was in a reclining possession so she had laid her head against his chest and betrayed him by going straight into the arms of Morpheus.

Now her lovely tortoise shelled cat had come and plunked herself down on Sinjn’s lap, propped up her mistress’ legs. It was uncanny how much her cat disliked him. Now it was telling him he wasn’t to move or wake Curlly up because she didn’t want her human disturbed. And he dare not try and move the bloody creature for her claws were rather sharp. It was quite the conundrum.

A soft chuckle came from the top of the stairwell. Avillion had tapped lightly at the door from the study and hearing no response, peaked her head through. "You’ve got a rather delicate problem there Sinjn."

Both Sinjn and the cat looked at Avi with a look that clearly said, "Softly!" Smiling she padded soundlessly down the spiral stairs and picked up the cat from between Curlly and Sinjn. Cinky hung limply in Avi’s arms as she was taken into the bedroom. Sinjn carefully picked up Curlly and carried her into the bedroom.

Avillion had turned down the covers on one side of the bed, and Sinjn laid his burden down. Curlly’s cat was plunked down on the other side of the bed and gave Sinjn a look that clearly said, "Well, I think this bed is full. Please break your neck on the way out."

The two conscious operatives left the room.

"What did you need Avillion?" asked Sinjn.

"Oh, I just wanted to tell Curlly about my date with Jack," said Avi with a grin, "and compare notes naturally."

"Good night," he said as he rolled his eyes and picked up his jacket heading out the door.

"Brrrriiiinnnngggggg!!!"

Cinky the cat ran out of the bedroom at the crude noise.

"Brrrriiiinnnngggggg!!!"

The curly headed person in the mass of bedding groaned inarticulately at the rude awakening. One hand failed about unsuccessfully to find the phone. Finally Curlly sat up to see where the phone was only to spot Birkoff leaning against the doorframe. Birkoff held an active cellular phone in one hand and her ringing phone in the other and (what appeared to Curlly) a wholly asinine grin on his face. The ringing stopped.

Flopping back down on the bed Curlly asked, "What do you want Seymour?"

"I need a favor."

"Well you haven’t picked the best way to get me to say yes! What time is it anyhow?"

"Ten o’clock."

"I should shoot you for waking me up this early."

"Get dressed. I’ll make you breakfast. Please Cruelly?" Cruelly was a nickname Birkoff came up with for when she called him Seymour.

"Oh bother!" grunted Curlly as she flounced out of bed.

************

Part Two

30 minutes later Curlly and Birkoff were seen leaving headquarters and driving away in his black Ferrari. "So what’s this about Birky?" yawned Curlly.

"I decided to get an apartment on the outside-" started Birkoff.

"You did not!" exclaimed now fully-awake Curlly.

"-because I wanted more privacy," finished Birkoff giving her a repressive look.

Curlly’s first thought was, "what will Maddy say?" The second was "Why?" "What are you up to Birkoff?"

"Why do I have to be up to anything?" asked Birkoff.

An irritated look crossed Curlly’s face. She hated it when someone answered a question with a question. "Because Seymour, you are far to comfortable as you are!" Did this have anything to do with his estrangement with Walter?

Curlly had been trying for weeks to find out what had happened between those two. Whenever she tried to find out, Walter would just flirt harder, and Birkoff’s eyes got some unexpected steel in them and would pointedly change the subject. A number of times Curlly went down to Birkoff’s room in Section only to find him gone, and he wouldn’t tell her where he’d been.

Curlly came to the conclusion from the mulish expression on his face he was either protecting someone or doing something that could get anyone involved in trouble. Probably both. "So you got this apartment. Why the early morning wake up? Want me to help you decorate?"

"Hardly. I’ve been working on an advanced security system for the apartment," started Birky. Curlly felt very relieved. It made sense for all the black time in his quarters. She knew his greatest fear was to be unprotected on the outside. He continued, "And I would like you to try and break in."

"Me? Why not Nikita, Sherry, or Rita? They are all much better cold ops than I!"

"Because you know me better than they do, and your computer expertise is much stronger than they have."

"Well it won’t be a good simulation. You’ll know I’m coming."

"I’ve noticed you have down time for the next 5 days…" hinted Birkoff.

"But you’ll still know I’m coming in the next 5 days…" hinted Curlly.

"Does that mean you’ll do it?" asked Birkoff. Curlly smiled as determination crossed her features.

"I’ll be there sometime in the next month!" promised Curlly. But inwardly she promised herself she’d make it in the five days so Birkoff could feel comfortable there.

He pulled out a panel and handed it to Curlly. It contained the location and blueprints of his apartment. It also contained info on electric, and other utilities for the facility. First thing Curlly would do after leaving Birkoff was to verify how much of this intel was crape.

"So were are we going now Birkoff?"

"87% of successful location breaches of Section personal had someone on the inside first. So I thought I would show you the apartment first."

"Oh, that’s okay Seymour. I won’t need the extra help. You can just drop me off at the corner over there."

"And what are you gonna do?"

"Oh a little preliminary surveillance, see what kind of food and clothing stores are around here," she said as she took off her seat belt. "Pick out a house warming present for you," she stepped out of the car. She saw his nose wrinkle at the thought of Curlly’s taste that so differed from his own. "Oh, don’t worry Seymour! I’ll be good," said Curlly reaching back in and ruffling his hair. "By the way, what colors are you doing your apartment in?"

A confused look crossed his face, "You are incorporating color into the décor, aren’t you?" Birkoff just grunted. "If you want, my offer to help you decorate still stands? We could start right now if you want."

"Uh, that’s okay Curlly. I have some last minute details I want to work out at my apartment. I’ll talk to you later."

Curlly shut the door grinning wickedly and watched him drive off. She put on her sunglasses and stared at the sky. It was going to be a beautiful day.