Meredith smiled weakly, sighing as she nuzzled against his neck.
"You were right, though. I did need the time. You have the bear, you can be certain in what he is telling you, but me? I only have my dumb heart and it's not so easy for humans. We do have to be sure, we need to be certain that what we're feeling is actually something real, that we're not imagining it. And I was so guarded I don't think I would have said yes if you'd asked me."
"But you know now?" Dice asked, catching his voice shaking again.
She nodded silently and it was all he could do to keep from smashing a window, throwing her over his shoulder and making a run for it.
"I am. Six years is plenty of time to make up my mind," Meredith said with a chuckle, the dry humor cutting right into him.
Six years … It feels like forever, yet when I'm with her, it's like we're standing back on the base and I'm about to ship off again. Fucking hell Spade, you knew she was alive all this time …
"So tell me," she started, her voice sounding wistful. "What are we going to do when we get out of all of this? When we can live like 'normal' people do?"
"I don't think we're ever going to be normal, baby," Dice admitted, his tone somewhat somber.
But the way she looked at him just then, the twinkle dimming in her eyes, it made him force through his own morose mood. They could have their moment of fantasy, right? No one could take that away from them, that moment. It was starting to look like a theme for Dice, trying to build memories out of moments and cling to them. He knew he was going to need them as soon as he had to let go of Meredith again.
"Okay, so when we're normal," he started, stressing the word like it was somehow defected and twisted. "I think we're definitely going to have to get a house. Big one. With a big yard somewhere out in the woods. No more deserts and no more jungles."
"I can agree to that," Meredith said, nodding sagely as she relaxed against him.
"And I think we're going to get a dog. A golden retriever, not only because they're cute as hell, but because they're dopey enough to not get freaked out by the bear. I know, my family used to have one."
"You never told me that," Meredith said with a giggle, running her fingers across his chest slowly, tracing the outlines of the tattoo he wore over his heart of her name.
"I haven't told you too many things, baby," Dice replied, catching the tint of sadness in his tone and doing his best to get rid of it quickly enough. "So, anyway, house, yard, golden retriever. Oh, and I want at least three kids."
"Two boys and a girl?" Meredith asked, perking up.
"Exactly. Did we talk about this already at some point? I don't remember."
"No, but it makes sense, I think," Meredith said, grinning wide.
"Great minds think alike," Dice said, hugging her tight.
It was at that moment that a shallow, fast knock sounded at the door. Dice and Meredith shared a look and the life and love seemed to seep out of her features. Gently, he set her down on the bed and stood up as another knock sounded, more hurried this time.
He opened the door only enough to look out, blocking the view in with his body. He didn't want any man getting too good of a look at his woman, regardless of whether or not they were on his team.
It was Thor, standing quiet and resolute, his rifle slung over his shoulder.
"It's time," he said, sounding like the reaper.
"Is the car ready? Did Ryker manage to fix it up?"
"It'll be good to go," Thor said with a nod, his solemn stare staying squarely on Dice.
The man was unnerving in a way, certainly the most similar to Spade in certain aspects and the one guy who Dice knew he needed to keep a close eye on. The twins, both sets, were easy enough to read. They played off of one another, light and dark, loud and quiet, but the man before him was the two sides made whole, and all the more dangerous for it.
Too much like a kindred spirit, a thought crossed Dice's mind.
"If we don't get moving, she'll get in too late and they'll send someone to look for the vehicle," Thor said, sounding impassive.
"We'll be down in a moment," Dice said, glowering at the sniper before closing the door.
He knew it wasn't Thor's fault. None of it was any of their faults, really. If there was anyone to blame at all, then it'd be Spade, playing them all like glorified puppets in his own twisted game. Dice really did feel like he was some sort of a personal guard or army for Spade, being sent where few other teams would ever venture, pitted against insane odds with an even more insane team to back him up.
He wasn't sure that he could keep the whole train on the tracks for much longer.
But turning around and looking at Meredith's sweet face, the corners of her mouth downturned in sadness because she knew what had to come next, he knew he was going to have to try his hardest.
For her.
Seven
Meredith
"Jesus Christ, it's hot in here," Prowler growled loudly, having spent most of the few hour drive complaining.
He had different headsets in both ears and Meredith had managed to count at least four different knives on his body so far and she was sure she wasn't seeing even half of them. Price was sitting next to her in the backseat of the same armored vehicle she'd been riding in the previous night, a scant eight or so hours ago before everything had been turned upside down and she'd been shown the face of hope for one maddening, exhilarating evening.
And here she was again, heading towards an almost certainly doomed fate. The fact that she knew that Dice was somewhere close, keeping an eye on her, made it a little bit better though. Not a lot, but a little.
"Yeah, yeah, quit your yapping, pup. We're literally in the jungle, certain elevated temperatures are to be expected," Price huffed, yawning lazily as he deconstructed one of his guns for the tenth time during the journey.
It was like his hands couldn't stay still, they constantly had to be doing something. He was so fast, too, that watching his movements for too long made it all seem like a slightly metal-tinted blur. After a while, Meredith had resigned herself to staring out of the window at the thick jungle foliage, sometimes catching glimpses of wildlife in the early morning.
"Oh, gee. Sorry, did I cut into your peaceful musings of the NRA and a clear, blue future of death and destruction?" Prowler asked, chuckling, though the noise was cut suddenly when he brought a hand to his ear and responded with an all clear to one of Dice's situation checks.
It made Meredith smile slightly, knowing that Dice was keeping such a keen eye on her even when he couldn't be with her. He'd promised her as much, that he'd always be close now. She didn't dare hope that it would truly pan out that way, but a little bit of daydreaming never hurt anyone.
This valley and the stretch of jungle were untouched by human hands, other than the bases that The Arctics had built. Or at least considering by the way the animals acted, they were not used to seeing humans there and the few times that Meredith had been flown in or out of the area, she hadn't seen any other signs of human life. She was sure she was allowed to see the takeoffs and landings simply to drive the point home that she'd have nowhere to run here, even if she tried.
Maybe I won't need to run. Maybe I just need to stand still and wait for Dice to come to me now, she thought, a small smile on her lips.
It was a pleasant enough thought. One that she couldn't entertain for very long because if one thing was clear then it was that she wouldn't be able to simply stay idle anymore. No, all of the energy that she'd been saving in the name of slowing down her work was now going to be put to use.
Paradoxically enough, her only way of getting out of this mess seemed to be to give The Arctics exactly what they wanted. Early in her career, she'd started looking into the reconstructive abilities of certain kinds of bugs, plants and bacteria. It had been little more than a hobby then but as time had passed, she'd gotten more and more into it until she could even speed up the regeneration processes in a few distinct species by a non-trivial margin.