TITLE: A Question of Questions
E-MAIL: eli @ popullus.net
ARCHIVE: Ask, please.
RATING: PG-13
POSTED: Sept. 15, 2005
SUMMARY: Adam had heard of Tom Quinn, of course. Not before, but once it happened; everyone heard of him, then.
AUTHOR NOTES: On the occasion of the fabulous Vonnie's birthday. Spoilers for 3.01.
DISCLAIMER: Read

---

Adam had heard of Tom Quinn, of course. Not before, but once it happened; everyone heard of him, then. Moral lesson and boogeyman rolled up into one, that was Tom Quinn, according to the services' higher-ups.

As for his expectations... The trip-wire of a man who had vibrated, crackled, and very nearly snapped in the surveillance van, he was, if not who, very much what Adam had expected. A man pushed to the edge by more than one hand, who had looked, and who had flung himself over without flinching and with a very loud bang. That wasn't a man who had anything to come back to, not anything real, and Tom knew that deep down, Adam thought.

The heart of Tom's matter was: how much was "nothing"? And since it was Tom's, and Tom hadn't quite snapped, it was their matter, as well.

Adam was still raw when Tom freely approached him for the first time. Raw and more than a little tired in body and soul, and it wasn't much comfort to think that that was how he should be after talking a person to their death, so he asked a version of that question that Tom should have asked himself. Christine Dale was the obvious first hurdle, after all.

Barely a quarter hour later, Tom returned, bracing his hand too casually on the partition.

"Come with me."

It was a demand; his words still had the hard thrust of a man without trust. Hands loose in his lap, Adam leaned back in his chair to absorb it.

"Why?"

Tom's lips thinned. Adam amended the question.

"Why ask me?" He tipped forward again to put his forearms on the desk, braced like the man determined to not shift on his feet in front of him. "Why not Danny? Or Zoe?" He raised an eyebrow at the lack of reaction, and added, "Or even Ruth, if you're looking for someone to ease the way?"

That pushed up one corner of Tom's mouth, but amusement didn't spread far before being shut down, pressed out of existence by the sour weight of awareness.

"This is supposed to be easy?"

Adam flashed a smile with plenty of his own experience in it. "No."

~~

They didn't talk on the way down. Adam considered it, running through and discarding subject after subject. But Tom had clearly lost chit-chat along with so many other things, and while it was possible that he'd regain it, that wasn't going to happen in one night. In the meantime, a silent partner wouldn't make his own part in this any easier, Adam thought, but that wouldn't be anything new.

Almost to the bottom, Adam heard Tom pull in a breath and had already stopped on the step above when Tom turned.

"Wait here?"

Adam narrowed his eyes at the blatant request in those two words as much as the idea. "You want her to think you're alone?"

Tom's smile was sharp that time. "I think she'll be off-balance if she doesn't see you until you appear."

Something like relief went through Adam; Tom was ready at least to answer this question. "So I'm to...appear...once you've approached her?" he asked, keeping his voice neutral.

Tom inclined his head. Adam settled his shoulder against the stairwell wall. "Your call."

~~

With one foot, Adam kept the door to the garage open just enough to see. He heard her car and could picture her walking nearer, even without the quick click of heels. He saw the bright flash of Tom's headlamps, sending shadows among the pillars and heralding the slam of Tom's door. That was when he stepped out: when Tom's footsteps would mask his, when Dale's attention would be fixed on the man she might just love.

And he did startle her, maybe more with his courtesy.

His role played out, amused by that last thought, Adam walked on to the car. He still heard Tom's cutting and immediate offensive move, her stumbling and then firming response. Once in the passenger seat, he watched them and their hands restrained in their pockets, and their faces, Tom's especially, dangerously open and vulnerable to the blows of their words.

Not easy, no.

~~

"See you soon, then," he was saying when Tom opened his door and slid into his seat to lay his head back and let out a silent sigh.

Looking over, Adam saw Tom's closed eyes and the faint frown between them. Regret, Adam wondered, or finally concern for the next steps back into his life?

"Harry?" Tom asked without moving.

Adam shook his head, and then said, "Danny. And Zoe."

Tom opened his eyes and sat up straight, the frown growing into a pointed question.

"I thought we should meet, the four of us." When Tom still said nothing, Adam gave him an open and reassuring smile. "There's a place I like on the south side of the river, where we can have a little food, a little talk..." He paused to let his mouth tilt into a conspiratorial smirk. "...a lot of really big drinks."

That finally got him a soft huff of laughter. "You're staying."

"For now," Adam agreed with a shrug.

"Bored? Looking to settle back into the warm embrace of the mother country?"

Adam ignored the stinger, deliberately used on him now that Dale was gone. "That's part of it. I have a wife, a child," he said calmly. Tom's head came around fast and Adam nodded. "I could do worse, and so could MI5."

Setting his jaw, Tom looked him over much as he had on that stark, dark street in front of the last thing that kept him from what he wanted. "You're not just Harry's insurance policy, then?"

A healthy dose of paranoia was a good thing in their work, Adam thought. So long as it stayed work. "You know Harry better than I," was all he said.

Tom held the look a moment longer, then turned away and opened his door.

##

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