Mia had both her hands flat atop her jeans. She knew people were probably watching her from the other side of the mirrored glass she was staring at. River might be somewhere else, she had appreciated him intervening on her behalf although obviously it had not been a great success. Along Diana Taverner who she knew and the small blond man River had called Spider was a scruffy looking bloke referred to as Duffy who had promptly knocked River out clean when he got a bit too close to them. Would it have made her less nervous to have River in the room with her? She wasn't so sure. He was easy to tease, keen almost. They had but one memory shared but it was a sufficiently pleasant one for them to feel a sort of warmth in her mind. He wasn't exactly a friend but even an aquaintance seemed wrong, they weren't in each other's lives.
Diana Taverner's heels clicked as she enterred the room. Once upon a time Mia would've admired her poise, her long skirt and heels. Not a crease to be found, undeniable elegance one might try to emulate, Mia had tried before and gotten bored of the whole ordeal. Still, maybe in something other than jeans and boots, she might've felt somewhat of an equal to her in this conversation. She knew this would be anything but.
'Would you like a glass of water Mia?'
She caught herself swallowing, she did want a glass of water. If she had a watch she could've checked how long she had been here for, reassured herself, it couldn't've been that long, but of course she didn't know. Would she regret not accepting this later on in the evening? Surely they wouldn't do anything too crazy to her? Her father even if he was no longer in the service had left head held high, a clean record as far as anyone knew, he was well connected enough that if his daughter were abducted...Surely someone would get the word back to him?
'It's not a trick question you know?' Taverner had leaned in, she had the sketch of a smile on her face, she guessed this was as maternal as she did get. Had the urge of comparing her to her own mother who looked nothing like this polished interogator facing her, I want my mom she thought, you never outgrew that, in any situation.
'How long am I to be here for?' she croaked the words out, yeah she did fancy a water after all.
'That depends on how fruitful our little chat is going to be'
'Is this not an interrogation?' Mia's hands came up on the table, the palms were sweaty and felt odd on the white surface, she hid them back down pressed against her jeans once more.
'So you believe we have a reason to interrogate you?'
'No but this doesn't feel very VIP treatment to me' she glanced around the room, acting like she was conducting some sort of surveillance of her own. The room wasn't that big now that she'd looked at it. In middle school she might've considered herself a claustrophobic.
'You are safe here Mia, that is my main concern at the moment'
'Is River safe with his brain hitting the pavement?'
'Cartwright's been through worse' her tone was clipped which make her even fonder of River, she wondered why she seemed so opposed to him, in a way he was supposed to be an even better nepo baby than she was in terms of service hierarchy.
'Is he getting interogated then?'
'I'm sure someone's got something out of him by now, although what I could not say'
Mia stared at Diana Taverner who was checking her nails. She knew what hers looked like, black nail polish, two coats on each finger but her left index who had one more because the top had chipped against the fridge.
'You know that I am fond of you Mia, surely. I meant what I had said then, I still occasionally think it.'
'Is it payback for that then? Me not wanting to join?'
'Oh no, you were always free to choose, it was probably the right thing as well. No one wants the life we have. I don't regret trying to recruit you Mia, I do not think of your rejection so much as your potential.'
Mia's brows furrowed. What the fuck was this conversation?
In middle school when mandatory observation courses had rolled around she had begged her father to let her do it at his job. Her image of him was close to pristine at the time, he might as well've been Iron Man. His father had been hesitant, things were 'tense' at work apparently. He had discovered that many employees had a need to bring their children in for similar reasons, tis the season. The kids were banished to some meaningless branch of service and had child-proof demonstrations of the most boring dullest things the Park did. Still Mia had sat through all those presentaions, taking notes and asking the right questions, little goodie two shoes that she was. She knew the right thing to say and had an alarming vocabulary for her age. On some days though, most days if he was being honest, nobody checked when he clocked in, he was sure it figured in a record somewhere, it had to, but he was too good at his job to be told anyhting at the time. Mia had sat through 'business lunches' with covered expenses, it was always all men who did not believe in the capacities of little ears. She had visited the data centers and watched the machines beeping away in her father's department. She of course had no badge and had gotten herself locked out going to the bathroom. That's the first glimpse Diana Taverner had had of Mia. During that week she had seen her again waiting for her father, she was cracking ciphers on a little white notebook in pencil, apparently she had told some cryptologist it interested her greatly. Christ, if she hadn't known who her father was she might've suggested the child see a psychiatrist.
Those were the numbers written on the page in the loopy handwriting that was unmistakenbly a child's. There had been coffee break chatter on the matter. The encryption's department was smug as if Mia was their daughter, her father gloated with the achievement but was a little jostled at the attention on his daughter. Still, apart from the experts no one had managed to crack her code. Diana herself had in secret jotted down the numbers on a sticky note. It had something to do with the Fibonacci sequence, she had heard people mentionning that. The first three were in order as well. What of the rest? She was not going to ask a child that much she knew, men she often found to uncomfortable with their own ego, but even for her it was a bit much. Instead, Diana had cornered a young analyst from the department, he was not much to look at and frankly useless at anything but his job. Still, a little sweet talking got her the answer. Mia had used her own name as a keyword substitution and replaced the usual A1Z26 with the Fibonacci sequence.
That night, in the tube on her way back to her notting hill apartment, Diana had laughed out loud after decoding the message on that crumpled piece of neon yellow and thought, she was a clever girl.
'I probably would've failed physical'
'You've seen Jackson Lamb'
'He wasn't always like that'
'My dad only ever wanted me to be an analyst, he would've never let me be one of you. He would've pulled my papers or something, top gun style'
'You never seemed to care much about your father's wishes after the age of 13'
'I still do, I just care about mine more'
'What is this? A fucking therapy session'
Taverner sighed. 'We did in fact try to reach your father'
'He's an different country and time zone'
'Yes, I've been made aware'
Mia guessed it had been several hours already and she could feel a headache blooming in the back of her skull. Diana Taverner was good at being calm she thought, she would've flipped a table if she had the energy. Coming in and out of the room. Thankfully she had been supplied with ample water, she had not drunk all of it in fear of not being able to relieve herself. Maybe I should just piss myself she thought, plead insanity, or a seizure? Maybe that way I could go home.
Still something in the questions she was asked didn't make sense. If it had been anyone else she wouldn't be thinking about it but she had admired Taverner enough to try to know what it was like to think like her. The questions she asked were irrelevant. It didn't make sense though she couldn't put het finger on what was bothering her. She really hated this entire experience. She thought about what kind of review she would leave if she could rate this.
'Rude snobby staff, the only somewhat cute guy was short and stole my fake bf #eviltwinkepidemic'
While he as being beaten up RIver had thought, surely there is no way for this experience to be anymore humiliating? Life had a way of proving him wrong these days, and in this instance it came in the form of Spider stepping through the door whilst he was still laying on the floor.
'Enjoying some tummy time are you River?'
'Yeah, yeah, up you get big guy, you're being let out'
River felt the places where he had been hit protesting against the instructions his brain was trying to send. Still he got up. They had an exchange regarding stanstead that even register itself in River's brain, he was keen to get the taste of blood out of his mouth.
'Quite the looker you brought in'
'I didn't bring her in, and don't be a pig'
'So sensitive, are you menstruating?'
As they neared the entrance he saw Mia standing alongside Taverner though he couldn't hear what was said. When she clocked him, her eyes widened. 'River! What happened' she moved towards him, hands coming up to brush his hair out of his face. In his peripheral vision he could see Taverner raise a disapproving brow. He would've cowered under the attention if he felt any less petty with Spider.
'You should see the other guy' he said devoid of any enthusiasm.
'Yes, see how clean there shirts still are, it's all his blood, it was quite entertaining, actually' Mia looked quite literally, down at Spider whose breath faltered for a beat.
'We should go' she said tugging on his sleeve. He nodded wordlessly, wondering what she could possibly say that he would've refused to her in this instance, if anything.
As they passed Taverner, she said voice steady 'James will see you both back to Slough House, he has a flashbox for Lamb'
Mia didn't stop though RIver's face turned towards the instructions of the second desk.
None of them spoke, River was aware of Spider's presence only by the sound of him falling into step beside them. Mia had yet to release her grip on the sleeve of his jacket which had him glancing at her face. If he was someone else he was sure he could've conjured somehting equally comforting and reassuring to say, but he couldn't. Instead he placed a hand over hers. At the netx juction she took a sharp right which had Webb protesting. Shrugging River off she started dry heaving on the corner of a very nice looking residential building. He gathered her hair, increasingly worried as he was nothing but the occasional spit leaving her mouth.
'Jesus Christ, at least I know what you bonded over' said James.
James Webb driving him around, or rather back to Slough House was something that pissed River Cartwright right the fuck off. In the passenger seat he turned his head slightly to check on Mia. She looked quite miserable though he guessed that was aloud after the day she had, her brows were neutral which usually didn't happen much when she was speaking. She was still just as attractive in the bad lighting of the back of the car, the sun was setting on London. There were tears streaming down her face that hadn't stopped since she'd tried to vomit. Nothing else on her face indicated any discomfort, she was just blank. River turned back to face the road, still tuning out whatever shite Spider was saying. In the least comfortable way possible, River twisted the arm furthest away from the driver's side to reach out to the back seat. His hand floated awkwardly for a while and he thought 'what the fuck are you doing'. Before he could retract his hand however, a hand reached for him holding onto his fingers. Her skin was soft and her nails long and smooth. Her other hand covered the rest of it. Even the metal of her rings was warm to the touch. In the mirror he saw her eyes meet his. She looked so sad River thought, so sad. Once again he tried to think of something to say and came up empty.
'Tu vas aller...bien?' River had entirely stopped trying to speak French around her after she had told him that she couldn't undertand what he was saying. She had retracted her statement at the appalled look on his face telling him instead that his accent was quite pronounced and she had initially thought from what he had advertised that he would be fluent. Spider chuckled but he knew he couldn't understand a word of french.
'Je sais pas' she said, voice suddenly so small. The sound brought him back to the image of her from that past summer when they were kids. He had no actual memory of her voice from then, but this was simply how she felt to him he thought, she made him soft. 'Tu sais ce qui se passe ou pas? On m'a posé des questions mais j'avais rien à répondre.'
'Quand...on arrive? Je peux te dire, ce que je sais. Mais, pas beaucoup' He saw her nose scrunch, she sneezed.
'Bless you, are we done with the french class?' said Spider, irritated. River smirked, if there was one thing he hated it was feeling left out. He squeezed Mia's hand.
He was sure he had never been so happy to see Aldersgate in his life.
