Talia's Torment

Chapter 19: Breakfast and battle plans.

                Talia was bringing over two cups of coffee to the table while Tanner was spreading out the building plans for the fancy building they had been told Laurent was staying in.  Tanner had also been able to get pictures of the surrounding area under the idea that he was a tourist and was able to get people to take pictures of him in the “Big City” to show all his friends back home.  Talia had nearly had tears streaming down her face while she held her middle in laughter when he had shown them to her.  He had dressed to look like he was definitely not from the city, with cowboy boots and a big ten gallon hat.  She hadn’t even realized he had one of those and he had told her it was a long story from when he was enlisted and he definitely didn’t want to talk about it.  She had also not known Tanner’s face could turn that particular shade of red, which only made her make a mental note to get that story later.

                It had been a couple of days since they had both taken the next step together and it had resulted in Talia now living in Tanner’s cabin and a firm agreement that she would never touch his Keurig or his espresso machine again.  Her standard coffee pot was now firmly wedged next to them on the counter, right next to the sink.  In her defense she had only overflowed the machine twice and caused the hot air nozzle to fall of the espresso machine.  It really hadn’t seemed that bad but Tanner had practically fainted when she had handed him the small tube of metal.  I guess they were not supposed to come apart like that.  Personally she felt that machine was way too fancy for someone to own who didn’t own a coffee shop.  She was no barista that was for sure.  She was simply a brew the coffee and then put your own stuff into it.  She didn’t really think she would ever understand the difference between a latte and a cappuccino and as far as she cared she didn’t need pods just a big ol’ pot of coffee to make her day.

                She could honestly say that for the most part the nightmares had stopped, probably because she spent her nights wrapped in Tanner’s warm arms and his scent seemed to calm her so very well.  Now though, she was intently looking at the photos of the streets and areas around the building so that she could try to see if there were any good places to use for surveillance.  Tanner was giving her the rundown on which streets showed promise and which ones were of no use to them.  He was also doing a splendid job of trying to cover his adorable image in each picture.  He had made sure to try to stand in a place that would give them the best view of the access points they were looking for.  She had to hand it to him, even when play acting for the benefit of their mission, he had been impressively capable of getting a picture of every single side and angle they needed.  He was a magician, had to be.

                They had narrowed it down to two possible sites, now they just needed night time shots to see which one would work best in the dark as well as the night.  Talia wanted badly to go with him to get the information they needed and it really burned her buns that she couldn’t.  Yeah Tanner had told her that their best chance of success was the fact that Laurent might not know she was still alive, and she already knew that part, but that didn’t mean that it was any easier to be the one to sit here and do nothing while he went out and got the information they needed to complete their mission.  Yes, it had become their mission when they had both decided that they didn’t want to go back to being just friends.  It was more than just a lapse in judgment for the two of them, it was a confirmation for them both that they had found someone who understood who they were now and that they wanted more time with each other.

                Tanner had told her that he was with her, no matter what.  She had decided if he was with her and not just there to protect her then she was going to give this a shot.  She owed herself a chance at something more than just an ends to a means life.  Yes, she would stop Laurent, but now she also had something to live for, someone to live for.  It had changed the goal for her outcome but did not change her mission or the fact that she still needed to get it done no matter what.  She would also have to admit that his help had been so beneficial already as well.  He had given her tips on what would be a better vantage point, as well as information on security routines and many other things she had not actually thought about in detail.  She had known that she would do what was necessary, but had not really been sure where to start on actually implementing what she needed to do.  She had just been flying by the seat of her pants in a way.  She knew she had the upper hand so long as he thought she was dead.  She knew that she needed to be prepared to be on the offensive as well as the defensive to be prepared in case things did not go so peachy keen as she wanted them to.  She had trained her body physically to prepare for the fight ahead and had healed her body so that she could do her task.  Getting herself into the mental state she needed to carry on in her mission without becoming a quivering mass of hysterics on the floor had been hard, but she still believed that the physical training had been harder.

                So what if she was ignoring a major chuck of what had happened to her, she didn’t need to talk to a shrink and lay on a couch to function.  She just locked it away and if she had to one day she would take it out and look it over, until then she was going to keep shoving it down as long as she had a task to complete.  The therapist at the hospital had told her this was like sitting on a bomb and expecting that it would never go off.  She didn’t disagree, she just chose to put a cushion on that bomb and hope for the best for now while she sat in relative comfort.  Kind of like that ball yoga class she had tried once, it was not easy to sit on and take your feet off the floor but while you pretended you were a lotus on the lake you could make it work.

                Now Tanner was getting out the pots and pans to make breakfast, which had been a major perk to moving to his cabin, and she was putting away the maps and plans they had decided on.  They had a plan in place, they were getting the info they needed and when it was all prepared they would strike.  For now though they had their battle plan and she would eat breakfast, perks of her new life with Tanner.