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Fell Deeds

Summary:

They thought the nightmare ended with the fall of Division, the defeat of Amanda/Helen and the winning of their freedom. they had succeeded in that; Nikita and her friends, her family now, complete with a new recruit and member by the name of Cara Mason, had taken apart Division and locked Amanda in a dark hole for the rest of time. That should have been all that was asked of them. They didn't plan on anything more than living out their days together in peace. But when Cara's father calls on her to help his organization - the DMS (Department of Military Sciences) working with and above board to save the world from terrorist types all over the world - with an international issue, the whole team can't help but say yes. When a doomsdayer surfaces with the notion to do the world in himself no one will survive, no one but himself and the people with whom he identifies as chosen, special, worthy, the two teams come together to save the world all over again.

Chapter 1: Proglogue: The Family Code

Chapter Text

It couldn’t be ignored. The feelings in the room were primarily positive but behind all that was tension and uncertainty. It was the elephant in the room, so to speak, and though no one was actively ignoring it no one was talking about it either. Ryan wasn’t dead, that was the most positive thing, undeniably so, to have happened all year. And even that had been touch and go for a while there; everyone had a target painted on their back as long as Amanda had been out there. Everyone that meant anything to Cara was still alive, however, including herself. But even so, there was this hollow gnawing feeling in the pit of the brunette’s stomach that things wouldn’t stay this way for long. Sure, Amanda was gone now, completely out of the picture and unable to hurt them, any of them, ever again; but it was never that easy when considering the lifestyles they led. They’d all burned some bridges and no matter how a person tried to recompense for those times, those moments, nothing was truly forgotten – whether or not it was forgiven. Cara had proven her loyalty, her fealty, beyond a doubt in anyone’s mind; this wasn’t to say that her recompense wasn’t due. She’d be paying on that debt for the rest of her life.

Cara’s pale grey blue eyes looked up from the floor in front of where she sat in a threadbare high-back chair. Seymour Birkhoff was in the kitchen of the small house they were in – she could see him through the doorway, there – and he was talking to Sonya in hushed tones. Cara wondered what they were discussing, or rather, what he was telling her. Sonya, whose last name wasn’t something Cara knew in her overall wealth of knowledge, had betrayed them all to Amanda within the first year the petite brunette had been with the team. Apparently Amanda had reactivated Sonya’s kill chip and forced her to spy for her in Ops, every day when she would come into work. Granted, Cara didn’t know anyone that well in the time she’d been with the ‘new Division’ and she knew Sonya less than the little she knew of the others, but to her the betrayal had been incredibly uncalled for. It was inexcusable. And somehow these people all found the ability within them, the fortitude of spirit, to forgive her… It took Cara longer but she did. They were family; they were all any of them had anymore. They had to stick together if nothing else. It was why she’d forgiven Sonya and why she’d been so vocal that Birkhoff and the young computer expert fix things and stay together romantically, even when things got difficult. Even to her own inevitable detriment…

“Hey you…” Nikita sat down on the arm of the high-back chair Cara currently occupied. The intrusion into the younger woman’s thoughts came from left field; clearly she’d been deep in thought because she hadn’t noticed her mentor’s arrival in the room. Although, Nikki was known for coming in on the wind like little cat feet… Nikita looked expectant, wanting an answer; guarded, but expectant.

“Hey, Nikki.” Her plump lips smiled, curving upward albeit slow and temperate. Those pale blue eyes of hers brightened infinitesimally. She didn’t relish this conversation; it would only cement that icky feeling she had, unsettled, that the worst was somehow yet to come.

Cara had tried her hardest not to fall in love with Seymour Birkhoff. It wasn’t necessarily because he was seeing Sonya romantically, even though it should have been the only reason. During the days of the original Division there had been no fraternizing between operatives and/or other staff; Cara was still stuck in that mindset and she tried to keep it that way even when Ryan took over and Nikita and Michael became friends rather than enemies. She also hadn’t wanted to fall for Birkhoff because of both similarities and differences between them; they both were geniuses according to the scores on the historical Stanford-Binet test, they both had amazing computer and technical skills, but unlike him Cara was a field operative and had seen combat and bloodshed the likes of which he wouldn’t even be able to imagine. She’d tried her damnedest not to fall in love with him…and she’d failed miserably. It didn’t take long for their friendship to grow progressively closer, the bond tightening around them…and their hearts.

“What are you going to do now?” Nikita’s eyes lazily traversed Cara’s slight but powerful frame. She was lithe and strong and agile and yet curvy and buxom in all the right ways. If Nikita had been a man she would have found her irresistible too! “You know, I didn’t trust you right away, in the beginning. You came out of nowhere and saved my ass like I was supposed to be grateful. But you were just looking out for me and you did that over and over again through this whole campaign against Amanda. And now…I’m concerned about my friend and her future. Who’s going to have her back?”

Cara’s plump lips parted over her perfect pearly whites, baring them in a genuine smile. “Hey, everyone should be so flattered.” A light chuckle bubbled up and out as Nikita met the smile with one of her own. “Believe me, I understand the initial hesitation. I would have to if I’d been in your place more than a couple years ago, for years, alone in it. But…I’m glad we’ve become friends.” Nikki didn’t answer, still waiting for Cara to answer the question about her future, what she’d do now, where she’d go. “But to meet you halfway and give you an answer, the only answer I know for sure is…I…I really don’t know.”

Nikita let Cara’s answer sink in for a moment, gazing into the other room where Birkhoff was still talking to Sonya. It wasn’t as though either one could hear the conversation between the two women, and vice versa, of course; it looked like neither party of two seemed very happy with the path put ahead of them at the moment. “You and Nerd…?”

“Again, I…don’t know.”

“Did he make it clear how he feels? Did you make it clear to him how you feel?”

Her eyes were faraway and took on a stormy grey tint rather suddenly as she thought about the queries laid out for her. “He…I thought he was pretty clear about how he felt…for me…” Cara paused, trying to formulate a coherent thought out of all the noise in her head. All eyes were on her, Nikita’s eyes anyway, as she tried to sort through the muck, thoughts free floating like stars in the night sky. “And I thought I made it abundantly clear how I felt about him, but then…” She shrugged.
Nikita spoke up. “Sonya was there much longer…”

“Yes…” The brunette’s word was almost a whisper, unsure.

Nikita’s hand took Cara’s abruptly and a soft gasp left the younger woman’s mouth at the action. “Don’t worry about Sonya. If Nerd is smart, as smart as he likes to think he is, he’ll come around to what is right, to what his heart wants, and fairly quickly. The loyalty you’ve shown, the unconditional friendship…that means one Hell of a lot more than you may think; just give it a day. Something…” Of course she’d been trying to make Cara’s worries less but Nikita couldn’t get inside Birkhoff’s head; that limited the extent with which she could actually accomplish that service. “And if he doesn’t…boys are stupid. You want me to pound him a little?” She laughed softly, making hand gestures to symbolize it, fist in hand.

Meanwhile in the other room, Seymour’s and Sonya’s conversation ended. The two women didn’t notice when Sonya left the room and Michael slinked in by way of the shadows. It didn’t take much to gauge the tenor of the meeting that just broke up. It wasn’t pleasant. Birkhoff’s head was in his hands; he hadn’t noticed Michael’s arrival himself. “Birkhoff…” Michael’s eyebrows raised together as was his typical fashion when speaking, waiting, expectant. “Rough afternoon…?”

Seymour sighed. “I thought once the Dark Side was defeated all our problems would run to ground or just…go away.”

“Problems have, predominantly…” Michael put his weight on one leg, leaning a hip against the kitchen island. His tone coupled with his speech was just as cryptic as ever. “No one ever said romance is one of the quote, unquote, normal problems.”

“Yeah, well, romance sucks, Mikey. I’m thinking life was easier when I was masturbating to online porn.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…okay, too much, too much!” Michael waved his hand, waving off the very unfortunate mental image immortalizing what Birkhoff had said on Michael’s tender grey matter. While Michael regrouped, Seymour nearly blushed and smirked sheepishly. “Moving on…” His eyes found the computer tech’s and softened. “I saw you with Sonya. I think everyone did…”

“Shit…”

“Well, now, hang on.” Michael commented, holding up a hand to keep Birkhoff there with him and in check as opposed to just spewing off at the mouth again. “I say that, not because Cara saw you both and got jealous or something. I don’t know how she felt or feels currently, to be honest. I say that because I know about the both of you, the love affair – as much as the two of you tried to hide it, and believe me it wasn’t that hard to see, so – and I’m just wondering here, what’s going to happen now? How does this end? I care about everyone here, Birkhoff. I care about you and Sonya and Cara, equally and without preference. You’re all friends of mine. We’re all family.”

Birkhoff ran a hand through his longish dirty blond hair and sighed once again. “Thanks, Mikey; but the truth is, I don’t know where I’m going from here. I can barely think about my future right now, let alone dragging some beautiful woman along with me into Pandora. Jesus, even the two Na’Vi hotties I’m in love with don’t deserve to be riding my coattails! They deserve better.”

Michael rolled his eyes without Birkhoff noticing. All of his film, TV and media references got a little annoying at times. “Okay, so, you don’t even have an idea…?”

“I didn’t say that. I have an idea. I just don’t know how right it is, whether that’s right for me or right for them.”

“How right it is?”

“Mikey, no matter what I do one of those gorgeous ladies is going to get their heart carved up like a Christmas goose.”

Ѫ

“Alex has Owen now and you have Michael and Ryan has new accomplishments awaiting him in the private sector of the government under a new name. I’m not trying to whine and moan and cry but when you don’t even have a lover or job to keep you busy, something to look forward to…” Cara blinked, shaking her head. “It kind of takes all the fun out of being dead, you know?”

Cara’s arms were crossed over her chest as she stood beside Nikita. Everyone was finishing packing their SUVs and assorted other vehicles, trying to get started leaving before the rains came. The forecast promised one doozy of a storm rolling in… Her perfect and pert B/C cup breasts stood atop the bridge of her arms and kept drawing Birkhoff’s eyes from across the gravel drive without Cara’s express notice. Nikki huffed after shoving in the last bag and shutting the tail gate on her vehicle. “You’re not whining, Cara. Your heart was just broken and you’re not crying or down on the ground, kicking and screaming. You didn’t even kick Nerd in the baby-maker so…” She smirked and winked before embracing Cara in a lingering hug. “I’d say you’re doing pretty good, Amazon.”

Amazon was the nickname Nikita had given her during one of their missions together and it just seemed to stick. No one other than Nikki ever called her by it but that was alright; it just mean that she was loved. Cara didn’t look it but she was stronger than most others her age and size. Division made sure of that and so had her father. Growing up without a mother and with a father in his own head, more interested in government and saving the world at large than he was concerned with his own daughter would make a girl a woman exactly in Cara Mason’s image and likeness.

The hug lasted about five minutes and the feeling of friendship, of sisterhood and caring that permeated there was strong. Cara had never had that before. “Thanks, Nikki. Coming from you, that means a lot to me.”

Goodbyes were hard in any case, at any time, but saying them to the only people who loved you and knew you were alive was much heavier. Michael and Nikita left first; they were well on their way to happiness but the goings on of the last couple years were still weighing on them. They had a road to go but it was known they would get there eventually. The two of them belonged together. Alex and Owen left pretty soon thereafter and then it was just Birkhoff, Sonya, and Cara.

The most awkward love triangle in history…

“So…” Cara noticed Sonya was hanging back, staying as far away from the petite operative as she could manage. “You think the computer geek with the muscles of steel and deadly tendencies is going to hurt your little sweetie?”

Seymour chuckled, smiling because as much as he knew Cara was joking he knew there was nothing more true about her. She was lethal. “No, but now that you mention it that’s probably what’s running through her mind right now.” He walked up close to her, smelling the patchouli and sandalwood all around him now. It smelled phony on anyone else but with Cara it was natural. She was a real life woman of the earth; whatever she was, she was. There was never any pretense with her. She was centered, for all of her faults and history; Cara was as conscious as anyone in their business came. Perhaps that was why she was so haunted by her past, what she’d done. “But…are we okay?”

Her eyebrows turned down and her nose crinkled. “Are we okay?”

“That’s what I asked, yeah… I mean, by that, like…”

“I know what you mean, Nerd.”

“You know, there was a time I was so mad when anyone but Nikki called me that.” Birkhoff commented, smirking now. “But I like how it sounds coming from you; you say it and it just sounds…nice. Cara, I don’t want to lose you in my life because I chose Sonya as my…you know.”

And there it was, the real reason Seymour Birkhoff was freaking out; he didn’t want to lose her.

He didn’t want to lose her!

Cara blinked, the shock inwardly playing out but never registering on that porcelain creamy pale face of hers. “I told you a long time ago when we first became friends, the trust you placed in me to keep Nikki safe, Alex, Michael, Owen…and even Sonya; I told you that it would take a lot more than some bad guys to make me go away. And this silly emotional heartbreak thing… That’s still not enough. I stand by my word.”

He almost snorted. Seymour was in more shock outwardly than Cara had probably ever been in her entire life. Her words replayed in his head like a record on repeat, broken. This silly emotional heartbreak thing? This. Silly. Emotional. Heartbreak thing. Really? Did she just…? “Right, well, you know what? I’m glad you feel that way. I really am, Cara.” He would have said more if the petite brunette hadn’t launched herself at him, engulfing him in one of the strongest visceral hugs he’d ever experienced. He could practically feel her heart beating so hard in her chest and his matched hers but for a completely different reason; her breasts, the same ones he’d been ogling earlier, were so soft and they were pressed against him so tightly. If he had a regret in him it was that he’d hurt her. He’d hurt her and it would never show because she was centered. That’s what he loved about her, right? She was too great a woman to show it. Cara was a fucking Lady!

“Take care of yourself, Nerd.” Cara whispered beside his ear so only he would hear. “Take care of her too, yeah?”

And when she released him, Cara did it quickly and turned away. She didn’t turn back. She didn’t even heard him whisper his wish that she take care of herself. She just didn’t want him to see her cry.