The Reunion Part One

by John

Hi guys!!! Well here is my first LFN story. This is an AU (Alternate
Universe) story in that I've used all the elements we know of in LFN
but have taken a few liberties here and there. Such things as the timeframe
the people are set in and some of the things that occur in Section. I hope
that you enjoy this first effort of mine all the same.


SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO!

THE REUNION PART ONE


It was a cold and dreary day. The sky was leaden with cold and dark
clouds and as  Madeline woke up and looked out of her bedroom window
she almost felt like plopping her head down on the pillow for a few
more minutes of sleep. But she being the kind of woman she is sat up
and turned on the light that was on the bedside cabinet. She then got
out of the bed and removed her night clothes heading for the bathroom
and a warm shower.

Once that was done she dressed in her work clothes of a dark navy suit
which comprised a dark navy jacket, a black blouse and a long navy skirt.
She had a quick bite of an apple from the fruit bowl in her kitchen and she
kept that in her hand as she walked out of her apartment and locked the door.
She immediately made a beeline for the  stairs and her walk to work. This
particular day she had a distinct bad feeling about using the lift in her
building.

As she walked down the street she took out her mobile phone and dialled
into Section and spoke to Operations.
"Good morning. I trust that last assignment went well" 
"As well as can be expected, no casualties and all goals were met" Operations
said to her as she listened.
"Good at least something's are working well today" she said with that
cool, quiet calmness that only she knows how to do and that's the thing
that makes her Madeline, being cool, calm, and controlled. She finished
off the apple which as in her handbag as she had put it there to get the
phone.

A while later she was in Section and the place was its usual hive of
activity. agents were walking to and fro and doing whatever they were
doing in their day to day work in the place. Madeline went straight to
her office and dropped her bag in the corner near a new vase she had on
a table. She immediately sat at her desk and turned on her compute


Operations walked into her office and promptly pulled up a chair next to
her.
"You do know which day this is don't you?" he said in a soft voice that
could almost be a sign of caring.
"Yes I do and what about it?" She said back to him in that voice that was
the Madeline he had gotten to know for years and years. He had hoped that
she would have at least acknowledged the date but this time she didn't. In
the past she had occasionally said things about it but today was kind of odd
"But today is nearly 20 years since her death, and her birthday." For
Operations this was a very unusual kind of response and she was kind of
surprised.

She turned her head away from her monitor and looked at him. 
"This wouldn't be one of your games would it?" she said directly to him
eyes locked  onto his.
"No it isn't I hadn't planned to make this a game!" he said back to her
sardonically.  It had taken him aback a bit that she would have been
suspicious because when he had entered her office his intentions were in
fact on this occasion pure.

This day was different in more ways then one. Today was the birthday
Madeline's sister whom she killed as a child and it was about 20 years
since that death. If she were alive she would have been in her 30's  as
was Madeline. The fact that he had even remembered was what surprised her
and mentioning her birthday was an even bigger oddity.

But she reasoned that Operations being the calculating man that he usually
is had another agenda behind his somewhat benign sounding question. She
reasoned that in the fullness of time everything would work out and she
would in fact find out the truth behind that simple question.

After the small discussion of the fact that that day was the birthday of
Madeline's sister Erica the two of them continued to talk, but this time
the conversation was more mundane day to day "Section" stuff. After about
half an hour Operations got up out of his chair and walked out of her office
into the corridor and down into the main area of Section. A mission briefing
was soon to take place so he had to read up on his notes and prepare for
that.


End of Part One



The Reunion Part Two

As she sat at her terminal and looked at the screen part of her mind
wandered and she wondered what things would have been, might have been
like had Erica still been alive. This whole train of thought was most
unlike Madeline and for the first time ever in her whole section life she
found herself with misty eyes. Luckily there was no one else in the office
or nearby or else they might have seen her. She took a tissue from the drawer
in her desk and wiped her eyes quickly. As she finished the door buzzer
sounded. It was Nikita standing by the door, and that was the last person
that Madeline had wanted to see.

"May I come in?" she said from the door where she was standing. 
"Yes you may" said Madeline and she pushed a small button on her desk and
the glass door slid open and Nikita walked in.
"Operations said you wanted to see me about something" she said to her in
a calm even sounding voice.
"Yes I do I had a look over your last month's figures for missions and
other things and your numbers are quite impressive. You've scored ninety
eight percent for the last three weeks running and overall ninety five for
the whole month." She looked up at her and finished that sentence with what
could almost be considered a smile.

Nikita was slightly stunned as she could see the look that had almost crept
up on Madeline's face. 
"We're quite impressed with that and your overall attitude in general over
the last couple of months in total. We'd like to reward you with four weeks
off if you would like?" Madeline said with an equally calm voice as Nikita.
"Who is we? Is that  you and Operations?" she said back to her. 
"Yes that is correct." she said back to Nikita. 

Nikita was stunned and decided on the spur of the moment, which was not
unlike her to take them up on the offer before something happens that would
change their minds. So she talks to Madeline and confirms that she will take
up the offer and take the four weeks off. Just as she gets up out of the
chair and heads out of the office she says thank you to Madeline and is even
more surprised when the thank you is responded to positively.

She walks out of the office and the door slides shut again. Madeline returns
to her computer screen and her work. Nikita walks into the main area of
Section and just stands there watching the briefing as Operations outlines
the next mission. She goes to Birkhoff's area and sits at a computer screen
and looks up some information and just as she is about to do more he comes up
and asks her what she is doing. She explains what she is doing. He prompts
her to get up and says that he can look it up faster so she tells him what
to do and he does it.

With her travel information looked up she walks out of Section into the
exit passage and the door that leads to the surface. She gets into her car
and speeds off for the airport and a plane trip to London. Her plans for the
next four weeks consist of some shopping in London and going to a small house
that she has  bought as another place to stay, besides her normal apartment.


End of Part Two



The Reunion Part Three

Nikita drove through the city to her apartment and she just sat on the
chair and toyed with her phone for a bit. She was thinking and trying to
analyse why she had been given such a "generous" reward by Madeline and
Operations. In her mind she was wondering if there was some ulterior motive
behind their sudden act of generosity. To her this was most unlike the two of
them and she had wondered why they would want to reward her as they have in
the past tried to set her up for sudden downfalls.

Still she reasoned that she should not look a gift horse in the mouth and
she decided that she would take them up on their offer and take the four
weeks away and visit her house in London. The wardrobe was in her bedroom
and she went there and started to pull out clothes and sort what she wanted
to take. She put out lots of warm things as it was cold there and snowing
too. Just as she was folding some skirts the phone rang and she went to
answer it.

"Josephine" was the only thing she heard and immediately she knew it was
Michael as that was her code name in Section. She asked him what he wanted
and he asked if he could come over to her apartment. She said he could, for
who was she to refuse Michael. Still after so long the attraction was there
between the two of them and both he and her knew it. About half an hour later
he was there and she  heard knocking on the door, and she walked to it and
let him in.

He looked at her and the two of them just hugged. 
"So I hear Operations has given you four weeks away from Section" he said
to her.
"Yes Madeline told me. It was some kind of reward for my performance" she
said back to him. 
"Yes I know I was the one that submitted the report to her about the last
couple of months and your numbers" he said back to her. The two of them then
kept talking for a little while and he told her that he was asked to make out
a report and an evaluation on her. She wasn't upset at his telling her this,
not even surprised.

She had expected that sooner or later in the last six months they would
have been looking at how she has been performing. She had expected they
would have got him to do some kind of report on her. Still at least he had
wanted to tell her so she reasoned that maybe on this one occasion the reason
for her sudden reward was genuine. Michael got up to leave as he had other
work to do and he said good bye to her and walked out of the apartment. She
closed the door after he had gone, after first taking a long look at him as
he walked towards the stairs.

She went back to her packing and finished the last of the three bags she
wanted to take with her. She popped her phone into a handbag, along with a
battery and a charger. Though she might not need it she reasoned that if
anyone wanted to get hold of her they might want to call her, and though
Section was the last place she wanted a call from she still is loyal to the
Section and such.


End of Part Three

The Reunion Part Four

Nikita took her bags and went out into the lounge area of her apartment.
She took a look around to see if she had forgotten anything and then she
picked her bags up again. She went out into the corridor put her bags down,
locked her door and then went down to where her car was  and she popped the
bags into the boot of the car, which was in the front as her car was a sleek
black Porsche. She got into the car started then engine and drove out heading
for London and four weeks of what she hoped would be rest, relaxation, and
time to herself.

She had changed her mind about going by plane and she rang Birkhoff to
cancel the arrangements she had made with him on the computer back at
Section. She had also considered using the train and putting her car
onboard that, but she had decided also not to do that. She thought the
extra time that the hovercraft would take would be more fun. It was odd
of her to think like this  but then it was odd for her to be so free. The
last three or so years had been if  anything a dramatic turn in her life,
with being arrested and "dying," and then the recruitment into Section. But
deep down she was grateful for them for one thing and that was getting her
life into some kind of order. Before all this she was a different woman. She
was into drugs, living on the streets, and not ever knowing if one day she'd
be alive or not. Still for this and only this she was thankful to them.

At about the same time as she was crossing the English Channel by hovercraft
the normally immaculate Madeline was out of Section in her apartment. She was
just sitting on her sofa looking around at the for walls around her. For all
that she had in her life, she had deep down an emptiness, a feeling of not
knowing about some things and try as she might she could never resolve those
feelings. She got up off the sofa and turned on the TV. it was mid afternoon
and all that was on were daytime shows such as soap operas and the like. She
turned the set off again and walked over to the window. She looked out the
window.

She had almost forgotten what daylight was like. She pushed back the
curtains and took a look out at the streets below her. She could see a
park, streets with people walking about and all the things that make the
city. She stood there for a while and just looked out and as she did she
could feel  a wetness on her cheek. She brushed her finger across her cheek
and found that she had tears. She then found herself thinking about Erica
and what she might be like now had she still been alive.

But she knows that even though she'd been told all of her life that she
was dead there was the slimmest of chances that somewhere in the world
Erica was indeed still alive. It was to be sure a one in a million chance
and probably about a two per cent chance of being so but she had accepted
that Erica being dead was the way things are. Today was the first and only
time that she had ever really given any consideration to anything otherwise
being so.

She walked over to her phone and dialled Section. She called Birkhoff and
asked him to pull up any files on her sister Erica. He then asked her if
she would come in to get them or to send them to her laptop. She said the
laptop would be fine and she plugged the other cable that was dangling by
the phone into her computer after she set it up on the table. As it was
downloading the information from Section she talked on the phone to Birkhoff.
He told her that he had found all he could on her death and that the rest
was up to her. She thanked him said goodbye then hung up the phone. She then
dialled out again to Operations and talked to him.


"Hello!" she said to him in a calm almost cheery voice. 
"Hello" he said back to her. He was puzzled as to why she would ring HIM
from her home.
"What can I do for you?" he asked her in a calm voice. 
"Remember how we talked a few days ago about me taking some time off to
unwind and relax?" she asked of him.
"Yes I do and the offer still stands" he replied back to her. 
"Well I've decided to take it" she said back to him. 

He told her that she could take as much time as she needed and she told
him that she would be taking about six weeks. He didn't argue with her about
the length of time as she was Madeline and the kind of person that never
takes breaks and only when she really, really needs to. A suitable
replacement for her would come from Oversight but that replacement would
not be Madeline. So for the next six  weeks Section would be a much different
place.


End of Part Four
Sunday, 9 April 2000



(c)2000 John D Leister