They Can Smell Your Intentions

THEY CAN SMELL YOUR INTENTIONS
chapter eleven

They lay in bed entwined together, the knotting long behind them while the heady afterglow left them dazed and, at least in Nigel's case, slightly off balance and incoherent. Adam's eyes were droopy and glassy, polished blue marbles that looked like twin earths in the near dark of their bedroom. Fingertips tentatively traced the worry lines of Nigel's brow, and Nigel closed his eyes and kissed them when they reached the outline of his lips. "I'm floating, darling. The very idea of me leaving you behind, it's fucking ridiculous. Why would I do such a thing? Fuck me, Adam, I just want to hold you tight to me forever, why should that be so difficult?"

He slid his arms around him and did just that, Adam sighing deeply as he pressed his face into Nigel's shoulder. "You promised me you are coming back, and that is what you are going to do, because I have never seen you not make good on your promises. If you hadn't come for me, I would have been one of those Omegas in a hole in the ground in some unknown, forgotten warehouse back in the United Main. I would be hoping, every single day, for you to find me. I'm so glad you did so in advance." Adam kissed him again, and fuck he tasted so sweet, he wanted to dive back into that moist softness and take all of it. The reality of leaving him behind was still looming, and though it was impossible, Nigel knew he wanted to tuck Adam completely inside of his soul and find a way to bring him with him.

Skin to skin, Nigel held him close, his lips brushing against Adam's ear. He felt the strangest sense of calm, a release of dopamine and endorphins he knew the knotting was responsible for, but he'd never experienced this kind of high afterwards, like waves of warmth that made him drift into the pleasure that was Adam. "How was it, my darling angel?" Nigel asked him, lips tempting the softness he was so very addicted to. "Where did you go when you fell limp in my arms? Were there comets? Did you dance on the rings of Saturn?"

Adam smiled into Nigel's neck. "Yes. It was beautiful, Nigel. Are such hallucinations common? I was in the Horsehead Nebula, spinning close to it and diving through the thick cover of dust and organic particles that comprise it, though I was careful not to get too close to the low mass stars that are in their infancy of formation. It's one of the few from the Orion constellation that can be seen with the aid of a regular telescope, we should go on the roof of the apartment building at some point and I will show you, it's quite spectacular. Though it is far away, to think such a simple magnification can allow us to see it, how incredible! Orion is a massive system that contains the mysteries of deep space and many star formations that are just as beautiful as the Horsehead Nebula, which is at a distance of 1.5 kly ly from Earth."

"Is that very far, darling?"

"So far you can't inwardly envision it with any accuracy. In relative discussion of scale, it is like comparing an atom of sand with the distance covered across the Earth to the centre of Antarctica, which would still be insufficient. When you truly think about it, we're so small we can't comprehend how little our planet fits amongst this infinite expansion of possibility. We're in actuality just drifting along inside of nothingness. We are comprised of atoms that simply float, the universe a vast collection of energy transformed into light, highly volatile burning bits of matter that are constantly threatening to explode. If there are miracles and not coincidences, Nigel, I think the biggest one is that I am here, with you. I want to place a meaning on that coincidence, that you are the other portion of my missing electron, you are the satellite to my nucleus. These are strange thoughts, I'm having, Nigel. Everything feels very skewed, the puzzles are not clear when they usually are. My mind feels like a funhouse mirror, warped into alternatives I hadn't considered. I think the expansion of supernova fragments may be an excellent way to measure the progressive birth of a galaxy. I love you, Nigel."

Nigel sank his face into his pillow, unable to bear the thought of his leaving his darling spaceman behind. He wanted to release his frustration and shout angrily into it, but he couldn't mar Adam's current, sweet happiness with his worry, and he kept his concerns about going to the United Main Coastline to himself. He had to find a way to reason out his explosive emotions, he had to calm them the fuck down and take a look at them from an analytical, Adam Raki, perspective. Yes, he was going in cold on a case that was set to explode an entire region of the world if it was handled improperly. Politics aside, the missing Omegas were likely close to death and the possibility he was picking up corpses was a looming fact. He would need a truck to properly rescue them, preferably one that was stolen so the GSF couldn't trace it back to a purchase. He wondered if a transport truck would do, he could easily get them in there and to the shipyard, though lifting them one by one was going to be tedious and slow work and he hoped Jack Crawford would be able to have a team of FBI ready to help. They had to be given over the medical personnel as soon as possible to ensure their rates of survival, that team was currently waiting at the appointed area at the Baltimore dock, a ship ready to take them all home, dead or alive. No matter the outcome, experience told him he would find death, and he felt like a reaper more than a rescuer. It wasn't hard to visualize his arrival bearing a scythe instead of glock to take out the Omegas' enemies. It wasn't an image he liked to inspect.

All of it was frantic conjecture. He would be meeting Jack Crawford in less than twenty-four hours and from there he had no idea what the journey would entail. His plan was to rescue the Omegas immediately, not stopping for any warrants or political wrangling, just an in and out job that would have him back on a plane to Romania and into his spaceangel's arms before he'd even had a chance to fully awake. He wasn't sure what Jack Crawford would think of that plan, but it was the one Nigel was determined to implement, the FBI agent's well being be fucking damned. People were dying. They had no choice but to run in, guns drawn, and enact a rescue, their own safety meant nothing.

"I don't want you to go, Nigel."

Fuck, he didn't want to either. He nuzzled Adam's forehead and kissed the frowning line away. "Think about the shape of the stars, baby. Think about how miraculous they are. I'll be home in no time. You won't even notice I was gone."

Adam's breath on his neck was warm and even, a rhythm that had Nigel drifting into its cocooning humidity. His eyes were heavy as they slid shut, his own sighs answering Adam's tender little breaths that he measured his heartbeat by. He could hear, if he really listened, the murmur of the planets' oscillations, elliptical galaxies on a forward axis, the relative speed of light calculating the distance of the Crab Nebula from the Milky Way, and Nigel was floating up amongst the stars with him, through hot gases and diving past thick, iron rocks, dodging the husks of meteors. He wanted to stay up there, in the Heavens with his precious spaceman, but the Earth was pulling him down, and he could feel himself falling, at a rate of red hot acceleration, his body burning up in the atmosphere, crumbling into molten ash.

He fell into the muck, the wet Earth burying him before he could find enough purchase to force his way out of it, his mouth full of its foul, stinking, rotten taste. This wasn't fair, he wasn't meant to feel this cold, he wasn't supposed to fall. He sputtered and clawed at the crumbling edge as he crawled out of it, his mouth stained with its bitter, blood tinged mud. He left the wet pit, spitting the rancid earth onto the soaked mud before him, his hands sinking into its black slime as he crawled onto firmer ground on his hands and knees.

Something shifted beneath him and he braced himself against the cave wall, for that was where he was, somewhere far from the heavens, in a cavern that was deeply underground, where light would never find it. He slid his stained hands along the cold, damp stone surface of the cave's walls, and peered into the dark, trying to discern shapes within the pitch black. He knew he wasn't alone, and he reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out his lighter, instantly patting at the familiar place at the pocket of his bowling shirt, but the pack of cigarettes had been lost in the muck when he'd fallen into it. He staggered back, feeling the squelch of the wet earth trying to suck him back in, and he knew he had to find a way out, though there was no light and hope had been long extinguished with it.

He had his lighter. He rolled it between his wet fingers and struggled with the tip before finally pressing down on the small red nub, and bringing the flame into life. The interior of the cave lit up, and Charlie was standing in front of him, a bullet hole in the centre of his forehead, a look of forlorn apology on his sweating, miserable face.

"I should be better at this," Charlie said, shaking his head. "It's not like I don't know how to warn people."

Nigel shrugged, and he really wished he had a cigarette. The last thing he needed was Charlie popping up here, ruining his chances of getting back to Heaven just by existing and pissing him off. Fucking jackass, as if he was spending all his time down here with the dead when he was supposed to be up there, helping out Gabi. No wonder she kept calling.

"You're in a bit of trouble, Nigel." Charlie warned, and again, what the hell was the guy telling him that for? It's not like it was a big secret. Charlie gave Nigel a shrug and a helpless, open-handed gesture. "I can't fix what you've done. How are you going to cope without him, now? You're going to go on a plane and traumatize him, that's not fair, Nigel. He's up in heaven and you're down here, and he's looking for you and he can't find you. Make sure he knows, when you're dead, to look for you in Hell."

"I'm not going to die, you stupid fuck!" Nigel shouted at him and a gust of wind blew out the flame on his lighter. He cursed and pressed it again, but nothing shot out, not even a spark. He shook it hard, hopefully bringing enough of the fluid to the surface wick to alight it. He pressed his thumb against it again, and a thin flame brought the cavern back into sepia relief.

But it wasn't Charlie who was waiting for him in the dark. It was the bodies of the Omegas, their pale corpses staring back at him with milky eyes and white, cracked lips. One lay in the centre of their circle of death, its chest splayed wide open, and when he looked down he could see it was the corpse of Darlene. Her heart still beat, the red angry organ stained with mud, tubes inserted into its main arteries pumping it in false life as they wound out of her and through the bloodstream of her mostly dead friends. "I look forward to meeting your acquaintance," her cracked white lips said, and at that moment he couldn't tell if it she was male or female and it didn't matter, because her heart suddenly stopped. The Omega he believed was Darlene was dead and her hand was on his arm. He was getting pulled towards their circle, he was a part of their world now. He was leaving Heaven behind as they dragged him, screaming in protest against their intrusion into his hope, down into the muck where he was to be buried. Down into the filth, never to find air again, down into the black, endless finality of dust meeting dust.

~*~

He awoke with a scream trapped in his throat and it took a long while before he could properly catch his breath and get his bearings. He groaned into the pillow, muttering to himself that his head was fucked. Hormones were overriding sense, taking over his subconscious and while he didn't regret his actions there were consequences he wouldn't be able to deny. His eyes hurt, a sharp brilliance in direct contrast to the suffocating darkness of his nightmare. The early sunlight streamed in through the opened curtains and was weirdly cheerful considering what he was facing this morning. He sank back on his pillow and ran his hand along the empty side of the bed where Adam was supposed to be. He still felt his lingering warmth upon the sheets, and he curled around Adam's pillow, breathing his scent in deep, taking every molecule of him that could be stolen into his senses. Adam was in the kitchen, making breakfast, and Nigel nearly wept at the normalcy of this, that even with the tragedy of separation looming over them, Adam was still capable of enacting his routine.

He could still feel the cold of the wet earth within his clenched grip, and he bit down on the sob that nearly escaped him as he buried his face further in Adam's pillow. He couldn't let him see how emotional he was getting, it would send Adam into a panic, and he didn't want to hurt him any more than he already had. Last night had been impulsive, a permanent decision based on desperation and biology, and he hoped that Adam knew the long term repercussions of this, that he would be able to cope with having bonded to Nigel for a good decade or more. They were a mated couple now, the knotting had ensured that. Married, in the eyes of Eastern Unions law.

Nigel rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, the shadows from the branch of a tall tree scraping along the white surface. He was married, again, and now he was set to ruin it by taking off into the ether and risking death, leaving a freshly bonded mate behind to deal with the chemical settling of that reality all alone. Fuck, he was a rotten shit.

His cell phone rang and Nigel cursed aloud as he answered it, convinced it was Darko. "I need a coffee first," he said in greeting.

"Nigel?"

The voice was wavering, uncertain, and Nigel sat up in the bed, the cell phone clutched tight in his grip. "Charlie?" A cold feeling tucked into his stomach, one that rode along the icy muck of his dream. The last time he'd talked to Charlie was at the other end of his glock when Gabi had left him and made sure Nigel knew for who. "Is Gabi okay?"

"Yeah, she's doing great, she's doing rehearsals for that recital in Petersburg. The conductor is a real hardass, he's practically making her fingers fall off, she's been practising so much." He hesitated, as though fearful she was about to walk into the room at any second, and Nigel felt a pang of sympathy for the sucker. Gabi really knew how to make an asshole feel unbalanced. "I just wanted to say thanks about my dad's ashes, that was a really cool thing for you to do. You didn't have to, I tried to explain to Gabi that it didn't matter, it's not like my father was no longer going to be gone and I didn't need that kind of a reminder, my belief is that once you're gone the body is just...Well, it doesn't matter what's going on with that, it's over, right? The spirit's the thing. That's what tends to stick around..."

His voice trailed off and Nigel was left frowning at Charlie's sudden shyness, as though there was a lot he wanted to say and he wasn't comfortable with the message. Nigel couldn't blame him, he did put the barrel of a gun at his temple and threaten to blow his brains out three years ago, and yeah, he might have skimmed past assault charges thanks to Darko refusing to be a witness. The hurt of Gabi leaving him had left him insane with pain, and it was a feeling that still smarted when he picked at it, like he was doing now. He'd never forget that final day, when she'd walked out of their home with her bags packed, Charlie tucked into her life like an extra piece of luggage she picked up along the way. He'd felt so used up, all of his deep feelings and his heart wasted on boozy nights and half remembered impressions. He'd thought that was love. He tried to fight for it and he lost, terribly, and he thought maybe taking care of her on the periphery was the answer, giving her money when she needed it, listening to her woes. But all it did was open wounds that were desperately trying to heal. Adam had done that job better than he could for himself, and he couldn't stop the words just falling out, no matter how infuriated Gabi was going to be at the very thought. "I'm mated with someone. An Omega." Nigel paused at the stunned silence at the other end of the line. "He's a spaceman, I mean, a planetologist, astronomer, astrophysicist--He's really something."

"Wow," Charlie said. Then, after a protracted silence at this news. "Am I happy for you?"

"Yes, you're fucking happy for me, you pisslick piece of shit, what the fuck kind of question is that? Seriously, Charlie, do you have a fucking brain, how in the hell do you even fucking function? I knotted him so tight he could pull a ship, so fuck off, Charlie. Am I fucking happy about it. Fucking idiot."

"Nigel, I just...Look, I'm not being an asshole, okay? It's just that usually Alphas and Omegas when they tie their first knot, it's because of a heat cycle, right? I mean, there's risks involved and, I guess you were really happy to take them." Charlie let out an exasperated sigh. "I think it's great news. A male Omega, hunh? They're so common over here, where I grew up I always kind of felt like a freak. Had to hide it most of the time, it's a wonder I never got arrested for gender subterfuge."

Nigel let out a sigh of his own and continued his study of the ceiling. He could hear Adam gathering up plates and his announcement of breakfast being ready was about to sing its way into the bedroom. "I have to ask, Charlie, were you a Mainlander or a Coastliner?"

"Coastliner, if you can believe it. Why do you ask?"

Nigel bit his bottom lip, and he was itching for a smoke. He pulled one out of his discarded shirt pocket on the floor near the bed and lit it, trying not to think of the lighter sending the horrors of a dark cave into relief. "I'm heading there this morning, should be in Baltimore by seven tonight."

"Oh." Charlie slowly took in this news, and Nigel was growing impatient with the guy's inability to quickly connect the fucking dots. "I was born in New York. My parents weren't one of the privileged class, though, they kind of scraped by, on the edge of all the glamour. My mom was a real envelope pusher, she hid my gender for most of my life, and I passed as a Beta for the most part. I was able to get a job that way, sustain myself. Wasn't easy during heat season, though, really hard to explain to employers why I had to routinely take certain times of the year off. Had to go from job to job for the most part." He was quiet a long moment, and when he came back to the phone he spoke in a harsh whisper, as though uncertain he wouldn't be overheard. "The United Main is a real weird place, Nigel, a guy like me is always walking around with a target on his back. I've had to be tough in ways you guys over here can't imagine. I was scared all the damned time, worried someone would find me out, or some Alpha would get a good whiff and that would be the end of me, right?"

Nigel frowned. "Is that why you came to Romania?"

"I came to Bucharest because that's what my mom wanted and she knew I was going to be happy here. I have no desire to go back there. Gabi might have thought that holding my dad's ashes hostage was some kind of ploy to get me back in their clutches, but no way. You got to be careful, Nigel." Charlie swallowed, his breath uneven as he spoke, the cell phone crackling with a strange kind of energy. "Monsters are looking forward to meeting your acquaintance. Watch every word you say, let nothing slip past you. You're going to be the one courting a necessary death this time."

Nigel sat up on the edge of the bed, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Are you on one of your fucking recreational drugs, Charlie?"

"What? Nah. No. I'm just...I just wanted to say thanks. So...Yeah, thanks."

Nigel chuckled at this, for Charlie was always sincere if nothing else. "Take care, Charlie. Say hi to Gabi from me."

"I'll do that," Charlie said, and Nigel knew damned well he wasn't saying a word to her about this conversation.

He hung up his cell and tossed it onto the dresser as he flopped back down on the bed, loathing the very idea of leaving it. He had a few scant hours to kill before his flight at ten o'clock. Morning brought with it a renewed sobriety as the chemical effect of their knotting wore off. He didn't regret mating with Adam, it had been as intense and soul encompassing as he ever could have imagined, but fuck, if Charlie's warnings weren't making him anxious now, the letdown of the aftermath placing all manner of doubts within him. He gave up trying to fight the inevitability of getting up, and he could feel bones crack as he got up from the bed, his hands splayed against his sore back. The ribs were healing but his bones were still painfully bruised. He'd had these injuries before, and they were collecting into an aching constant. There was only so many times you could get smashed with baseball bats and fists before your body finally told you it was enough.

He entered the grey light of the kitchen which was engulfed in gentle shadows in the morning, the perfect brand of light for an Omega to wake up into. Adam quietly made scrambled eggs as Nigel sat in his chair at the breakfast nook and silently watched him, his coffee too dark and bitter. From where he was sitting he could see the tears glistening as they fell, his angel's cheeks red and raw from weeping.

"Last night was very special to me, Nigel," Adam sniffed.

"For me too, baby."

"You will need to be very careful. Don't talk to anyone on the Coastline if you can avoid it and if anyone asks, the Omega you mated with is back at home, but don't tell them Romania, tell them I am in Russia. That way if they want to enact revenge on you they can't easily find me, or any of your friends. Traffickers are known to hold grudges, it's a common understanding in the Mainland. Don't surrender information, carefully guard your words, it is a place that is very dangerous for Omegas and now that you are bonded to me if they find out you are there to thwart their plans they will want to hurt you by using our connection."

Nigel raised a brow at this over his mug of coffee. "You're a lot more street smart than you look, my angel."

"I am not stupid, Nigel, I have difficulties understanding emotional cues, however this does not mean I don't have the ability to analyze dangerous interactions. Harlan was very good at warning me about the GSF and about the traffickers. An Omega always had to be on guard."

Nigel thought about what Charlie had just told him, and he nodded over his coffee, chewing the information and digesting it like it was his breakfast.

"You mustn't trust anyone, Nigel, not even agent Jack Crawford, the United Main is very quickly descending into political chaos, I have been watching the news very carefully. Through statistical information and analysis of past conflicts I have calculated that you have about a week before the entire structure finally descends officially into civil war. You must come back before you get stuck in the middle of it."

"I'm no stranger to a good fight," Nigel reassured him.

Adam placed their plates before them, and quickly wiped away his tears with hasty fingers before sitting down across from Nigel. He wasn't drinking milk this morning, he had opted for orange juice. Nigel wondered what that particular change in routine could mean. He watched as the tip of Adam's fork slid across the cherry blossom pattern with soft pings, scrambled eggs salted with his tears. He reached out and grabbed Adam's wrist, steadying the trembling he found there. "I'm going to be just fine. If Jack Crawford ends up being some kind of fucking asshole who I have to take out, so be it. I know what my job is, darling, I set free our trapped Omegas and I get the fuck out. Very simple. I have no intention of making the acquaintance of anyone and the only thing that godforsaken place is going to see is my ass as I turn around and leave at first opportunity. Did you make toast, darling? You look so pale, I know you are scared. The way you are clenching your face like that, is your tummy hurting? You are so upset. You are breaking me, darling. Don't eat these eggs, then, have some toast, it will help settle your stomach."

Nigel felt the wave of Adam's fear hit him and it made him nauseous. An Omega wasn't supposed to feel like that with their Alpha present, and yet Adam's terror was rolling off of him and assailing Nigel like the sucker punch of a dozen assholes kicking the crap out of him. Lying to him and telling him that this was no big deal wouldn't work, Nigel knew, Adam would easily nick the lie as soon as he told it, letting it bleed out angrily between them. Adam was still clammy and feverish, though not as bad as he had been the night before, and though his eyes were still glassy and he was clearly trying to work his way through the shock, he did allow some of his regular, stoic reasoning to poke through.

"You are coming back," Adam ordered him, and Nigel nodded, perfectly in agreement with this. "We are a mated, bonded pair now. You can't leave me behind for too long, right now it is biologically impossible. You have three days before I begin suffering the effects of not having your chemical composition near to me. If you believe I have entrapped you due to this, it's because I did. What happened last night was my doing, a result of careful research and personal need. I do not wish to have you absent from my life and when you announced to me that you have been ordered to go to the United Main I was perfectly aware that our mating would ensure you would do everything possible to come back to me, especially now that it has become a biological imperative. Under the laws of both the United Main and the Eastern Unions, we are a bonded couple and no Alpha will be able pursue me, and traffickers will avoid me as a result of my current chemistry, which is flooded with your pheromones. Bonded Omegas bind their necks in silk on the United Main, but I have no wish to participate in the tradition of a place that has shown me nothing but oppression. I will follow the customs you have outlined to me, and I will purchase the obsidian rings myself this week. I will wear mine. I will keep yours waiting for you, for when you come back."

He could easily envision it, the round black circle as it slid over Adam's ring finger, the finality of it hitting Nigel far deeper than his marriage to Gabi. That union had been committed on a drunken whim, to the strained sounds of Chopin, the cello a tightly bound witness or the actual lover, he never could be sure. "You didn't trap me, Adam," Nigel assured him. "I wanted to mate you, I told you I was determined to take this into the long term." He sipped at his bitter coffee and fought the urge to grimace over it. "Of course, I'd thought we'd get past the third step at least. Darko is going to be one smug fucking bastard when he finds out we've knotted."

"Statistically, it was an inevitability," Adam told him. "I looked up the rituals and through observation of candid conversation in various courtship chat rooms and Kinsey studies, it was determined that most Omega and Alpha unions happen by the third step, though we did skip the whole witchery nonsense, which I am grateful for."

Nigel smiled and placed a warm palm on Adam's cheek, liking the way he melted into his touch. "Your statistics need to be more proactive, darling. You're still crying, are those fucking numbers lying to you and telling you that I am never coming home to you? Numbers know nothing of love, my angel. Put all your money on me, darling, I'm too unpredictable, there isn't a chart I haven't broken."

Adam shyly smiled into the centre of Nigel's palm and he felt a familiar ache winding through him, the desire for sex rising along with an aching need to stay close. "I refuse to calculate an answer that will merely cause us harm. Harlan often told me that positive thinking can get you very far in life." Adam chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully. "If the statistical analysis shows you will most likely die, this may skewer my ability to think positively of the outcome, and in the realm of physics, this may actually act as an influence upon it." He caught Nigel's confused frown and added, "The observation is what is key."

Nigel nodded, but he didn't have a fucking clue what his darling space angel was saying (something about a shoondigger, and a dead cat, yes, something like that) and it didn't really matter anyway. His cell phone rang again, and this time it was Darko, his friend so wound up he didn't give Nigel time to say hello before he was spewing out shit about Gorecky needing him for a quick game plan conference in his office and he was already in the lobby of the apartment building, ready to drive him to the precinct.

"A fucking meeting?" Nigel looked at his watch, along with his half dressed state. The bastard Subcomisar was being pushy was he, he hadn't even had a chance to shower yet. "That's cutting it close, my plane is leaving in a couple of hours."

"Gorecky wants to make sure you don't have anything to sue the department with when you come back maimed from the United Main and on a bigger note, he's worried you're going to spark a fucking World War. I'm on your floor, I'm in front of your door." He knocked, loudly and it was echoed within the cell phone. Nigel bid Adam to go ahead and open the door, forgetting a few key components to the ritual of breakfast, the first one being that neither of them showered until *after* they'd eaten.

The door was opened and Darko was damned near knocked back, the scent of a mated Omega so bitter to his senses he actually retched. "Fucking bastard!" he shouted at Nigel as he staggered in, holding the back of his hand to his mouth, trying to control his retching. "You fucking *knotted* him? Are you nuts? You're going on a plane halfway across the world! How in the hell is he supposed to deal with the separation, you idiot, Adam is going to get sick!"

"I initiated the union," Adam protested, but Darko was having none of it, his finger wagging in Nigel's face as he marched, furious at his superior officer and friend.

"Fucking irresponsible cunt!"

Now, that was just being a dick, because the whole issue of why he had to leave in the first place was because Nigel had too much fucking responsibility and mostly for the welfare of strangers. He glared at Darko and pushed past him as he marched into his bedroom, tugging open his closet and pulling out haphazard clothes that he tossed into a duffel bag. He slid on a pair of fresh black jeans and a black polo shirt that was a size too small and, heedless of Darko's continued glaring, he went back into the kitchen. Adam was tense, his hands clasping and unclasping into fists, big blue eyes brimming with tears and his sweet bottom lip quivering so hard Nigel couldn't help but fervently kiss it.

"Darko is going to take care of you while I'm gone, my darling," Nigel assured him, pulling him into a tight embrace that only seemed to increase Adam's sobs. Nigel rocked and shushed him, petting down the silk of his hair and committing the locks to his memory before gentling him at the back of his neck with firm, massaging strokes. "I'll be back before you even know I'm gone." He wove his arms tight around Adam's shoulders, near suffocating him in an embrace he didn't want to release. Adam shook and wept against his chest, the scent of him so delicious every moment was breaking Nigel's resolve.

He set his jaw and pulled away, pushing off Adam's hands as they tried to cling back to him. He grabbed his duffel bag and dove out the door before he could stop himself, his shoes stepped into along the way.

Darko remained silent as he walked behind him. If he had anything to say about the tears coursing down Nigel's face, he thankfully kept damned quiet about it.

~*~

He didn't go to Gorecky's office, he had no intention of talking to the Subcomisar. The wall of a man was clearly waiting for him, his massive bulk sending long, uncomfortable shadows through the precinct. Nigel ignored him and immediately made his way to the lockers, determined to obtain that one thing that he knew he had to surrender before he left. He wasn't sure how it was going to be received, Gabi certainly hadn't appreciated it, but this was Adam, and there was nothing more different in this world than what he felt when it came to him. He unlocked the dusty locker and took out the small, parcel wrapped box within it, keeping it tight in his grip. When he closed the locker door, Darko was standing there, waiting for him, his small, black eyes fixing his friend in a mixture of pity and rage.

"You just couldn't wait until you got back?"

Nigel felt the weight of the small package in his grip, his insides feeling shredded. He didn't know how he was supposed to explain it, that Adam had been so enticing, his body simply melting into his and before he knew it they were in bed and Adam was knotted beneath him. He was so beautiful as he lay there, helpless in his arms, blue eyes focused on a far, miraculous horizon of stars and moons that Nigel couldn't see, but he had taken him there and he felt this odd, soulful pride at this. His body clung to the memory of the steady orgasmic pulse of his cock filling the Omega with his seed, the delighted sighs escaping Adam's moist, red lips. He still felt drunk from it, and it had been Adam who had initiated the act, who had practically impaled himself, and Nigel melted over the exquisite heat of his wiry little body and his distress. He was an Omega in need, he was hurting and it was Nigel's job as his Alpha to take care of him, how could Darko not understand that?

He slammed the locker door shut and braced himself, pressing his forehead against the cold metal before standing up and pushing his shoulders back. "We're going back to the apartment and picking Adam up, I want to say goodbye to him from the airport, there's something I need to give him."

"As if you haven't given enough!"

Nigel stormed in front of his friend, then, Alpha anger taking over. "Don't you fucking judge what you don't fucking know, Darko! I'm going on a fucking plane and flying to Hell, and this is how my best friend treats me! Fuck you, Darko! You don't understand anything!"

Darko grimaced and fought the urge to strike him, the tension between them palpable. "You fucking knotted him, Nigel, I'm just saying you could have waited until you got back, you jackass!"

Nigel shook his head, staring down at the package in his grip. He tried to keep his emotions in check but they were swirling hard within him now, a big mess of memories and impressions and smells and delights collected up in a ball of nightmare because he wasn't allowed to indulge in any of it. "No, Darko, I couldn't." He could feel the tears and he tried to balk at them, to push his overriding emotions back, but his heart wasn't letting him. "I couldn't resist him. He had to know how much I loved him."

Darko's eyes widened at Nigel's choice of words. "You're coming back, you moron!"

Nigel swallowed back the hard lump in his throat and quickly wiped at his eyes with the heels of his hands. He was wearing everything wide in the open today, and he was sure he still stank of knotting. Subcomisar Gorecky should be fucking thankful he was avoiding him. "I need you to take care of Adam, I'm trusting you with this because I know out of all the bastards who are here you're the only one know will do it right. Adam is my mate, it's now a fucking fact, so don't fucking arguing with me about it."

Darko was left speechless as he stood in shock beside his friend. What Nigel was entrusting him with was the life of his Omega should he die, and maybe now his friend was finally getting just how much in the shit he really was.

"General Drubek gave me a laptop, one with departmental controls on it so there's no cyber snooping. But I'll be able to use Skype in an alternate browser, Adam already showed me how. I'll be keeping tabs on all of you, and if you don't hear from me that's how you know something's wrong. Gorecky thinks I'm going to fuck this up, that's why he's got me in here before the flight. What that bastard needs to know is that I've got too much to live for to die for the fucking cause. The minute I sense danger, I'm fucking off and I'm coming back home." He braced his friends shoulders with the strong grips of his hands, forcing Darko's frowning stance to acknowledge him. "If it's a fucking disaster, if the world fucking ends, I need you to be able to keep it going over here, do you get me?"

Darko nodded, and he was swallowing down some rocks of his own that had lodged in his throat. There wasn't much time to waste. Nigel marched out of the locker room, the small, rectangular package still in his grip along with his duffel bag. He paused in front of Gorecky's office and gave his superior officer the finger before marching past him and out the front door of the precinct.

Nigel swore the Earth itself shook with monolith rage as Gorecky ran out of his office after him, massive meaty hands getting ready to grab and pull him back into his political maw. He'd said it plenty of times before and he wasn't about to waste his breath further explaining it now. This rescue mission was exactly that, taking care of near eighty kidnapped and stranded Omegas who time was quickly ticking closer to death the longer he waited. No more talking, time to work.

"We need to go over our strategy!" Gorecky shouted at him, and Nigel flipped him the bird as he got into Darko's car.

"I already know what it is, asshole, it's *me*!"

Darko didn't want to waste time either. They sped along the side roads on Nigel's orders, making their way back to the apartment where Adam was no doubt stewing in misery. He hoped his little spaceman had performed all of his necessary rituals, all the little things that would make him feel better and calm him down. He'd have to make a big list for Darko to make sure he knew how to cope with it all. Adam was single mindedly determined when it came to those things that eased his anxieties, and he was certain to be ramped way up this morning.

Bucharest flew by the passenger window as he sat back and tried to catch his breath. He'd gone to the precinct solely for the item now weighing heavy in his lap and with shaking fingertips he gently released it from its parchment paper prison. He opened one corner and tipped out the two small jewellery boxes, unsure of how he was supposed to do this.

"What is that?" Darko said, speeding past a red light and throwing a curse at an oncoming car that had to slam on its breaks.

Nigel chewed the information for a few moments, not sure how much he should reveal. "Obsidian rings."

Darko huffed at this and made a sharp turn that had Nigel clutching the dashboard. "The ones you bought for Gabi."

Nigel shrugged. "She didn't want them. She preferred the flashier shit, said these were too old fashioned. She wanted diamonds, remember?"

"You should have returned them."

Nigel opened one of the boxes, the small ring one he hoped would be large enough to fit Adam's slender finger. He took the rings out and pocketed them before closing up the tiny boxes and tossing them on the floor of Darko's navy sedan. He kept his hands hidden. Anything to keep his friend from seeing how much his whole world was exploding into molten rock and he was trembling like a fucking piece of lit paper above it.