Open Canvas

By Curlly

 

Curlly pushed her body harder. She knew time was running out, without any physical evidence. She was almost done and still might make it...

Lungs closed to bursting, her hand touched the wall. Looking up and out, she saw a bronzed hand that held out her water bottle. You still need to shave a couple seconds off," said Sinjn looking at the time clock on the auditorium wall. Curlly scowled at the wall then at him. After a long pull on her water bottle, she lovingly said, "Bite me."

Sinjn sighed inwardly. Curlly had read a series of books Rita had gotten her hooked into and once she finished them he noticed a slight change in his beloved’s vocabulary. Added to her standard expletives were, ‘bite me’, ‘frigid’, and ‘dude’. He was still a little puzzled by the strangely elongated ‘dude’ though.

She got out of the pool and took off her swim cap and goggles and began to towel off.

"Any breaks of in the Sorrano profile yet?" asked Curlly curiously

"Not yet. But I’m getting close."

"Well, if you need any help, I’m sure I could squeeze you in," she said patting his cheek and smiling cheekily.

He knew she was trying to nettle him. "And what makes you think I require your assistance? You just stick to your shopping and wedding plans."

Curlly laughed, "Hey, I am a woman. I’m used to multitasking."

"Of course, Curlly."

"Besides, I know I could get to Sorrano before you any which way you slice it."

"And if you do?"

"Then I get to not only pick the tux you wear to our wedding, but I also get to pick the location." Sinjn nodded his head in agreement. They had been unable to agree on the location and he was going to let her pick that just to be nice. Now, the tux was no big deal after all.

"And if I win," Sinjn said, "You have to cook and do dishes for the first month of our married life." She had planned to do the wife thing for awhile after they were married. Glory, they all knew how little of normal domesticity they were going to get. Two weeks, four weeks, no big deal after all. Curlly nodded, "Deal!"

Sinjn leaned over to seal their bargain with a kiss when Curlly pulled away. "I don’t kiss the enemy," she said airily and started to walk away.

Smiling, he caught her arm and whipped her around, "The devil you don’t!" Sinjn kissed Curlly rather ruthlessly. After a moment he finished the kiss off with a slight tug on her lower lip. "Anywhere else you’d like to be bitten?"

Curlly blinked up at him, her expression slightly dazed. He watched and waited. She would have gotten him if he wasn’t watching, but he managed to side step and avoid going into the pool. But didn’t move fast enough to avoid the towel snapped at his butt. "I really donut think you want to start something pretty boy! Your gonna need all the time there is to keep up with me. Cause I’m gonna beat your butt mister!"

He was watching her rather closely, "Are you sure you don’t want to say ‘bite me’?" He laughed as he left because of the color in his fiancées cheeks. Once he left Curlly let out a chuckle. Sinjn knew her so well, because she almost had said it.

*****

Curlly pushed her keyboard away in frustration. It had been two days and she had nothing. Well, that wasn’t true. When Sinjn had asked her if she wanted the data he had so far, she had said, "That’s awfully sweet of you, but," then she laughed as if vaguely amused, AI don’t need it." He had just grinned, knowing he was going to give her some false data and walked away.

Now Curlly thought he might feed her bad data, but she had already planned on hacking into his files to see what he had. Curlly figured it had taken her just the right amount of time to get into them, but figured she help him upgrade his security for Christmas. "Oh heavens to Betsy glory goodness glory!" exclaimed Curlly. She had completely forgotten about what to buy him. As if last year hadn’t been hard enough!

As with most things, while Curlly was mulling over what to buy Sinjn, that which she was no longer thinking about self provided an answer. She had been going through different leads, but kept wondering why Sorrano called her organization The Heart of Winter. Madeline’s profile of Sorrano suggest Kirsten Sorrano believed herself the bringer of winter to the world and the mother or heart of her little band of terrorists.

While Curlly had been thinking about Sinjn’s gift, she had been staring without seeing at a visual of Soranno. Reflected in the monitor over Sorrano’s face was the oil painting hanging on the wall behind her. Curlly jumped up and did a little victory dance around her desk whopping and hollering. Cinky the cat just looked up from her seat on a chair then settled herself back to sleep. "That’s it, that’s it, that’s it," she crowed in delight making a connection.

Stopping abruptly, she sat back down in front of her computer again and ran a check on "Heart of Winter, The". She scanned the list that came up and opened up on the painting. Grinning wider she started to look at the security tapes of the museum when she heard a knock on her outer door. Locking down her computer she then raced down the spiral steps and across to her front door.

Pulling the door opened, "Hi. Watcha got there? Is it for me?" Sinjn had obvious just come from outside, for his completion was glowing from the wind. In his arms, he was carrying a large, unwrapped box. "Yes," he grunted as he made his way into the apartment. With much relief, he sat his burden down on her glass coffee table. Dripping melted, dirty snow on her table. Her eyes narrowed. "Besides baring gifts and tracking in snow, what are you doing here?"

He went over and enveloped her in a hug, "Don’t you remember, we are all going Christmas tree shopping." He waited until remembrance lit her eyes and then stuck his cold hands up her back. She immediately pressed herself closer to him only to a second later buck back from him, shrieking. Laughing and screaming at the top of her lungs, she tried to squirm away from those cold hands. A wrestling match then issued.

When it was all said and done, Curlly knew the only reason she won was because she had a little extra help. Little being the operative word. Cinky, hearing all the commotion and come down the stairs to see her arch rival. Prowling she made her way around the fountain, crouching low she waited for an opportunity. Finally she had an opening and launched herself, claws first. Sinjn let out a yell heard throughout CLHQ. He spun on way then the other trying to dislodge the cat hanging heroically from his tush. Trying very valiantly not to laugh, Curlly carefully removed her cat, claw by claw. Holding her cat protectively under her chin praised her cat. Cinky hissed at Sinjn. Sinjn rubbed his, well, you know. And Brenna opened the door. "What on earth is going on in here?"

"Nothing. I just need to get my coat and we’ll be right down." Shaking her head Bre closed the door. "Are you okay?"

Heading towards the bathroom he muttered, "Fine. I’m just fine." By the time he came back out, the cat was nowhere in sight and Curlly was seated demurely on the couch, coat in lap.

He looked suspiciously at the box on the table in front of her then at her. He looked a little more closely at the box and saw one corner of the tape was bumpy. Curlly looked extremely pleased with herself. "What? You never said I couldn’t open the box. But don’t worry. I didn’t unwrap any of the presents inside."

He repressed the need to roll his eyes. "You’re just like a 5 year old. Let’s go." He helped her put her coat on and they headed downstairs to join the others.

*****

It had been quit the entertaining evening. They had all spread out in an efficient search pattern for the perfect Christmas tree. Shocking just about everyone, Whisper swiped the "perfect" tree right out from under Michael’s nose. Thus saving him from deciding whom to give the tree to, Sherry or Rita. Curlly could hear Jace & Nahla arguing softly somewhere. It was funny, being out in the snow in the evening had made them all talk rather softly. The lights created blue shadows, making the lighted snow look almost pink. The sky was clear with stars twinkling up in the sky.

"What are you looking at Curlly?" asked Dragonlady. In her quick and brisk manner she had selected, bought, and Damien volunteered to take the tree to the truck.

"See that star over there, the kinda reddish one?" Dragonlady followed Curlly’s finger and nodded. "If you look over to the left four stars you’ll see a kinda small one with a bit of a haze around it."

"Yeah. So why are you looking at a fuzzy star?"

Curlly glared at her friend and placed a protective hand on her hair. "It isn’t fuzz, it’s a nebula that orbits that star, which is the one Sinjn named after me and gave me last Christmas. That’s my star."

Her friend gave Curlly an impromptu hug. "I’m so glad your happy Curlly." Curlly just hugged her back. "So I know why you’re looking at the stars, but shouldn’t you be picking out a tree?"

"AI told Sinjn he could pick our trees this year."

"Trees?"

"Yup. A small one for my place and a bigger one for his house. I’ll spend Christmas morning, provided the world isn’t ending, at HQ and that day and evening at Sinjn’s. Can you believe he’s making me wait till after dinner to open most of my presents? He brought over a few presents so I could open them with the rest of the girls, but the rest..."

"Well, I’m sure you’ll survive somehow."

"Hey DL, Curlly come here for a sec," called Rita. They found their way to Rita. Bre, Avi, Heather, and Nabiki joined her. Everyone else was still selecting his or her trees. These girls were the first to finish. "What’s up?" asked DL.

"How attached to that hat are you Miss Curlly?" asked Rita.

"Why?"

"Well, we are going to snag it on a branch of this maple tree. Very carefully. Then you will ask whatever male so comes along to remove it for you."

"Why me?"

"Because you’re the shortest one of us Curlly," smirked Avillion. Curlly growled at her.

"Then no matter how carefully they take it off, one of us will shake the tree branch, thus dumping snow all over them." All the girls laughed. Roarke was their first victim. Why none of them asked how her hat got caught, besides Michael who is suspicious of a hangnail, by a branch way beyond her reach, was beyond Curlly.

Dragonlady let Curlly know someone was coming then hid out of sight. Curlly heard snow crunch under boots and started jumping in the air, trying to grab her hat. "I see you have a problem Curlly."

Curlly took another jump, "I spent hours hunting for the perfect hat for this coat, and now this happens."

"Please, allow me." His height allowed him to reach it easily. He turned to hand it to Curlly, but she was a good five feet away. He opened his mouth and an absolute wall of snow fell on him. He just stood there, a small pyramid of snow on his head and shoulders, holding out her hat. Gingerly Curlly took her hat from his outstretched hand. "Gee, thanks a lot." Then she reached out to brush some snow from his head, letting it fall on his nose. "Oops!" With that the other women watching couldn’t contain their laughter. Curlly rushed over to stand behind Rita.

"You can almost see the steam," chuckled Brenna. Once he brushed off all the snow, and unburied his feet, Roarke saw the humor of the situation and helped waylay the next man. The last man was taken in just before the first snowball flew. Of course it was aimed at Curlly, but she dropped her Chap Stick and reached down to retrieve it. So it hit Dragonlady. The males of the species had made a stockpile of missiles while the girls played their little games. A very happy, very wet, and cold group came back to CLHQ.

They all spilled into HQ is a rush of sound and color to be stopped cold. Northstar was standing under the mistletoe with a line of men leading up to her. Operations, Walter, Petrosian, Bauer, Fanning, and many others waited their turn. North just looked at them with a twinkle in her eye and looked at Rita and Sherry. "Yes? Did you need something?" She waited a moment. "There is hot chocolate and cookies in the dinning room." It wasn’t so much as an invitation as a very strongly put suggestion.

Afterwards Sinjn walked Curlly up to her room. He unlocked her door but declined to come in. "Are you coming over tomorrow night to decorate our tree?"

"Sure. I’ll see you then." He gave her a quick kiss and whispered softly and tenderly, "Sleep well, I love you."

"Mmmm. I love you too."

 

*****

Curlly walked into the museum and found her way leisurely to the floor she wanted. There was no one in the room with the painting. She thought it very ironic that people who loved such beautiful art, and the human emotion that came behind them could sit in the mist of it and plot destruction of said human beings for profit. For that is what THOW did. They came here to discuss courses of action to be taken and to hire out any needed manpower. All of their high level meetings took place in this room. Curlly had checked the surveillance tapes of the room and identified many high profile players.

The Heart of Winter was a beautiful ink and oil on glass, with a muted background, the artist unknown. It was a woodland scene. Icicles formed over the sides of rocks, the snow almost glitter on the branches, and sunlight dappled the whole. Without realizing one absorbed it, you could see nature forming hearts all through the painting. But when trying to see them individually, it was impossible. The colors were bright yet subdued. It was truly a masterpiece.

All Intel suggested that the best place to pick up Sorrano would be at the meetings held here. It carried the more dangerous profile, but the better success rate. Now it was just to get the last few kinks worked out of her profile and present it to Birkoff for analysis. Both Sinjn and Curlly had agreed to let Birkoff pick which profile was presented to Operations, because good ole Seymour just didn’t care.

Curlly was still contemplating the painting when a flash of yellow caught the corner of her eye. She couldn’t believe it! It was Sorrano! Thoughts of bringing the woman in herself flashed through her head. Then she called Sinjn. He would be at a nearby Section substation. "Yes?"

"I’ve literally found Sorrano. I’m not equipped to take her out. We’re at the museum. I’ve spotted at least five guards following her, too many innocents, and an unidentified male, dark brown hair, black sunglasses with a gray coat."

"I’m in systems now, can you get a good picture of the male?"

"No blast it all! Wait, they are splitting off, who do you want me to follow?"

"I am in communications with Madeline; she would like you to follow the man if he doesn’t have any guards. We can’t afford to be tagged at this point, and Sorrano’s people are almost as good as we are."

"No guards. We are exciting the building heading south on Howard Blvd." Curlly pulled her coat more securely around her. She’d have worn pants if she’d known she was going to trail someone in this kind of weather, but at least her coat was ankle length. Oh, it was one of those goes around comes around things. She got men drenched in snow last night, so she was stuck in howling wind today. Figures. The wind blew from behind, throwing her hair across her eyes. She attacked it with her hands and managed to get it into a not. Finishing she looked up and saw Sinjn crossing the street towards her. It had been about twenty minute’s sense she called him.

As their hands met, he slipped her a back up clip for her gun. Then his hand slid up her arm and across her shoulders, to settle her comfortably at his side. "Anything interesting?" he asked, shifting to shield her body from the wind.

"Only that this guy knows were he’s going. He hasn’t hesitated or looked at the road names. No double backing either, but I can’t figure out where he is going."

"That’s okay honey. That’s why I’m here." Curlly would have pushed him, but the street was a little to crowded because of the holidays.

"Funny, I thought you were here because I lead you here."

"You’re so sexy when you’re pissed." She did push him then. Up against a wall. He let her because they both saw the man meeting with the guy they were trailing. Curlly knew Sinjn’s eyes were better than hers at picking up the fine details. Plus, his sunglasses had cameras. Sense he had this advantage (and she figured the only way she’d get to see the film was to hack into some more files) she decided to see just how good he was.

Curlly started with a gentle nip along the side of his neck. Followed by soft kisses up his jaw to his ear. She could feel his heart speed up a bit. Now this might have had nothing to do with the hand she slipped under his shirt that tickled it’s way up his back, but she thought it just might. She could see out of the refection in the store window that the meet was breaking up. She finished off with letting her tongue fondle his ear. Smirking she tilted her head back and looked up at him. "Why honey, I do believe your blushing." But she was rather proud of him, for he never took his gaze off the target.

Just remember little Miss Curlly, what goes around comes around," growled Sinjn as she took her hand and pulled her along.

"I certainly hope so."

Continuing as if she hadn’t spoken, "Birkoff confirmed we got good shots, so we are done here. Raine has passed both parties and tagged them with trackers. Let’s go in."

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