Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Nearing the exit from the large arrivals terminal she started to think this whole thing all over again. What was she thinking? Why had she come here? What was she hoping to find? What was she hoping for? And could any of it really come true? Her heart started raising at the images in her head as she thought of what might happen. But that was all a dream… wasn’t it? Why the f* had she come here?! She was only setting herself op for failure.
While her mind was leading her to the conclusion that she might better get right back on a plane, her feet where leading out of the sliding doors and over to the cabs holding area.
“Need a lift Miss?”, a man asked as she approached the line of waiting cabs.
She looked up and saw a young man in the beginning of his twenties in jeans and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt, standing next to a huge brown Volo, which looked nothing like a cab. There was no sign on top and no name of the proprietor on the sides. Confused she took a couple of steps away from the guy, muttering a declination of his offer while turning her bag on him, and moving over to the official looking cabs.
“Are you sure? Its going to be a long trip. It will be quite expensive in a cap”, he shouted after her.
An alarm went off in her head. How did he know where she was going? Incapable of deciding between fight and flight she stood frozen in an awkward position with almost all the weight on her front leg.
“It’s alright”, he insured, but she did not believe him until her next words came out of his mouth. He said it so quietly that she was unsure if he had really said it, or if it was her mind playing tricks on her. “Max send me”.
She turned around to face him, trying to act nonchalant while her mind was in uproar. Without further ado, the guy opened the left backdoor and waited for her to approach. Before she know what she was doing, she was sitting in the car watching the unknown driver close the door behind her and placing her bags in the boot of the car. Then he got in himself sitting on the right-sided driver’s seat and starting the car.
Looking at the seat next to her, she found a couple of snacks and sandwiches as well as a bottle of water.
“I tried to find the most British-looking stuff in the shop”, the driver explained as he watched her through the Rear-view mirror, while the car drove through a country so wholly unfamiliar to her.
“Thank you”, she muttered staring out the window of the capital passing by.
“It will be about 2 hours before we get there, so you might as well get some rest Miss Hawks”, he added.
She did not answer him, instead she was going through the past days in her mind all over again for the hundredth time, and once more asking herself what she was doing here, and even if she should have come? There was so much she did not understand, so much, she had to explain herself. And what would the outcome be? Would he even want her here? Would he be happy to know that she wasn’t dead? Or would he forever hate her? Water gathered in her eyes at the thought of it.
4 days ealier
It had been a crappy day at the office. To be honest every day since she had come back was crappy. Their new boss Morales was worse than McCarthy in Hollywood. Morales suspected everyone, especially the former partner of the infamous Max Lewinsky of having conspired with Geiger and the rest. Sarah was tired of answering the same questions over and over again. No one had believed her when she had tried to defend Max. And it had not been made better when he disappeared. A special force formed to get to the rotten root of the scandal had placed agents at her hospital bed convinced that Max would come back for her. Apparently, they had forgotten their own little scam to make him think that she was dead.
The memory of his last touch of her hand and the sound of his grief in quiet, hidden, tears. It broke her heart just to think of it, and at the time she had only the fear of causing his death to credit her being able to lie there completely still without opening her eyes. At night when she tried to fall asleep she would sometimes open her eyes in panic, thinking that she heard the same grief, felt the same loving touch. And when she would finally dream, her dreams would be full of the memories of this deep blue eyes. Of their times together. And most of all on that moment in the hospital, when she had refused to let go and give them both what they wanted. She couldn’t remember what had held her back anymore. Whatever it was, it was not worth this. They should had stayed together. Solved the case together. Disappeared together.
As she reached her front door the small hairs on the back of her neck stood up, telling her that something was off. The unlocked the door, and entered her home with gun at the ready, prepared for whatever might come. Except, what she really found.
The living room was empty, but as she entered, a silent movement behind her confirmed her intuition, but before she had turned around to face the intruder he had spoken to her in a calm and friendly tone.
“You are a hard woman to get a private word with”, the man said.
Sarah didn’t recognise him, but something about him told her that it was best to hear him out, before she raised the alarm. The man smiled at her, as the lowered her gun, then he stepped around her and took a seat on her untidy couch.
“I’m here to give you a proposition Miss Hawks”, he started. “I know a man who would be more than happy to hear that, as they say “the roomers of your death have been greatly exaggerated. I believe you know of whom I speak”.
A bit uncertain Sarah nodded, still standing in the same place between the door and the couch.
“Good. Well, as you might imagine this friend of mine is not likely to show up here in a place where cops of both sides are just lying in wait for that same exact thing. So instead, if you are interested, it can bring you to him”.
He stop, looking at Sarah with a mild smile that she found both friendly and unsettling. It took a while for her to realise that he was waiting for her to say something, so she quickly stuttered a reply.
“Aaaa…I…I would love to see him again”
“Good”, the man said clearly pleased and rose form his seat. “You should properly know that the good nes have not yet reached my friend, so you might do well to prepare some sort of explanation”, he add as an afterthought as the crossed the living room. As he passed by Sarah he gave her a friendly nod, and then poof he was gone.
Standing confused and staring at the now empty couch, Sarah saw a small envelope lying on the coffee table. Inside she had found a plane ticket London-Oslo and a number of foreign currency.
That was it really. Before she knew it, she had found herself in Norway getting into a stranger’s car, at the promise of seeing Max again. And she couldn’t wait to look into those deep heavens of promises again!