A thousand temples
Author: wanderingsmith
mar 12, 2016
Summary: The second he saw the shadow
waiting besides his truck that night, he knew the
plan had, unsurprisingly, changed.
"I told you we needed him alive."
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: I ain't got no money, and nobody'd
be daft enough to pay me for this. As it is thought,
so let it be said; you make the toys, I play with
'em..
AN: after that sense&sensibility street
scene in E3
so yeah, bad habit of sitting on fic, waiting for it
to improve, is still in full force. this is much..
dryer. more staccato than I usually write. but it
doesn't want to change. so. yeah.
The first few steps were taken on automatic: mind too
busy reverberating with shock and anger and half-buried
anguish. The world may as well have been empty for all
he saw.
Until he tripped on a crack in the pavement and the
jostle kicked his brain out of the rut.
Over. Done.
Never see Barney again.
'If I never had to see him again-'
Lee stopped, head rising as his jaw clenched, old
idiotic deep of dark night thoughts raking through him
with wild bitterness. Fine. Fine: bastard wanted it
over? Well Lee was getting his money's worth.
He turned around and saw Barney's familiar limping
figure about to turn the next corner, and he took off
after him. Again. Silent this time.
Not thinking clearly enough at the time to realize that
Barney not reacting to someone running up to him had to
mean he was as buried in his head as Lee had been.
Only thinking at the last second, as he grabbed Barney's
shoulder with one hand, that he might get a punch for
the move. Didn't stop him sliding the other hand into
Barney's hair and fisting it to jerk him into place. The
man started to say something: the garbled sound of what
might have become Lee's name was silenced when Lee
mashed their lips together. The resistance that should
have been there from the moment of his grab finally
started to build up at that touch, but Lee didn't
hesitate, brought the other hand to slide into more
slick hair; pushed his tongue past lips before they
thought to defend the gate.
There was no enjoyment in forcing his slick touch where
his dreams had him welcomed; desired. Here in reality,
there was nothing but the waiting for Barney's hands to
appear and take a violent grip on him to shove him off.
But the seconds passed, and no physical pain cut in. He
was flicking the tip of his tongue at a sharper tooth
than any *he* had when it occurred to him that he hadn't
got bit. That the expected hands were on his shoulders:
they just weren't gripping, or pushing him off. If the
broken edges of their last conversations weren't still
cutting him up, if he wasn't faintly aware that they
stood in the middle of a street in the middle of
hyper-conservative America... Lee would expect his alarm
to interrupt at any moment.
With just one last softer touch, lips feeling as bruised
as his heart, now, he pulled back, greedily trying to
remember every second. Inches between him and eyes that
were all black pupil. Staring back at him; *almost*
steadily.
Too close to being steady.
He didn't ask. Didn't want to hear Barney say it was
over again.
He gently un-fisted and untangled his fingers as he
looked away from goodbye and instead stared at bruised
lips; absently, wistfully, feeling the scar-rough scalp
and silky hair going past his fingers. That he'd known
for a lifetime that life was unfair didn't stop a
childish voice at the bottom of his mind from whining
that he didn't want to let go.
But Lee swallowed the sounds and stepped back. Turned
away.
He wasn't thinking clear. Not near clear enough to get
through Barney's thick skull when *he* was obviously
messed up as shit.
--
Barney hoped to hell the man didn't see his face before
he turned away, because he knew he wasn't hiding
anything, anymore. Could hear his breath jerk as he
tried to swallow the bubble of pain.
He'd set himself to give up everything. Had even been
set to deal with Lee's shouting; known the man wouldn't
just let him- But that had been the end of Barney's
strength.
This... This he had no defence against. To have a taste-
To know that *Lee* had wanted... That he was taking even
more than he'd thought from the man. God, he'd only ever
wanted to keep him *safe*! Bonaparte would find him a
decent group with someone in charge who didn't lose his
focus and get his people killed; Barney knew damn well
Lee was more than good enough to get anywhere he wanted.
Just let him move past the mess Barney'd made!
----
When Christmas showed up at his door, Doc expected to be
jollied into going to hassle Barney into smartening up.
Sharing some nice beers while reminiscing about old jobs
with someone who'd seemed to dislike him on sight was a
bit odd. Though he had to admit, seeing the fellow's
eyes hardened and focused as when they'd been on the job
was better than that unpleasant hurt look he'd caught
sight of when Barney dropped his little bombshell.
Wasn't until he dragged himself to coffee the next
morning that he got suspicious at just how many
questions had seemingly incidentally wrapped back to
Stonebanks.
----
A limousine came to a stop in front of Warsaw's
Intercontinental hotel, unloading several men in dark
suits that glistened in the brightly lit night. As they
started under the portico, the one leading from the
center seemed to stumble.
And chaos erupted.
----
The last time he'd been so isolated was 15 years ago.
The last time he'd gone deep cover.
Barney's thigh twitched at the memory; the old break
usually waited for changes in weather to snarl at him,
but thinking about that agonizing crawl through the
jungle with a wrecked leg, hoping like hell his pickup
showed up and waited the alloted time, was a good way to
wake it up too.
Packing gear in his own hangar was a damn sight more
pleasant. But having only unknown kids as backup was
about as reassuring as that unreliable pickup had been.
He was going to have to watch himself. By the time his
leg was up to a job, Lee'd joined the Expendables, and
Barney could count on his fingers the times that he'd
gone out without the brit at his back since then. And
never in the last 10 years. He'd forgotten what it felt
like. How much energy he wasted twitching at the things
he couldn't see.
It made putting up with the kids' posturing easy, in
comparison.
Now if they just turned out to be as good as they made
out to be, maybe tomorrow would go better than he
expected.
The second he saw the shadow waiting besides his truck
that night, he knew the plan had, unsurprisingly,
changed.
"I told you we needed him alive."
Barney's brows flew up in surprise at the growl, "And I
heard you the first time. What do you want, Drummer?"
There was a beat of silence, and Barney could see a
frown grow on the man's face. "Stonebanks was shot
entering his hotel in Warsaw last night. No one seems to
know who did it," Drummer stared at him as though trying
to see a lie through Barney's shock, "I thought you'd
sent one of your guys..."
"No. We were heading out tomorrow. You have no idea who
did it?"
Drummer shook his head, seeming to reluctantly relax,
"No. The word we got from a corpsman was a single .308
winchester into the top of the head. Died instantly.
There are a couple buildings with tricky sights on that
entrance, but Stonebanks' men swarmed their roofs and
apparently didn't find anything."
Though on a good day he could still make the shot, he
couldn't see Gunner managing the escape, anymore. Not
without planning help. Then an unpleasant memory
flickered through him and Barney tried to look
uninterested when he asked, "Or a 7.62mmx51 NATO?"
Drummer's narrowed eyes probably meant he hadn't been as
stoic as he'd hoped. "Could be. Your old team?"
Barney shook his head, "Not likely. They wouldn't agree
on what to do." It was only half-true, but the man
didn't need to know that. "Got guys to change plans on,"
he held out a hand, "Much as I wish I'd been the one to
kill the bastard, I'll settle for being glad he's dead."
The CIA agent shrugged before shaking his hand, "I
already said it wasn't my idea to keep him alive, Ross.
As long as you didn't go behind my back, I guess we're
even."
Barney clenched his teeth to swallow the response to
that, settling instead on watching the man walk away.
And getting Thorn to get his ass back to the hangar.
----
"You can get surveillance of the buildings around it,
right?"
Thorn was understandably confused at the sudden
turnaround; and the lack of his comrades. "Yeah, I
should be able to find a feed over Warsaw from
yesterday. But what am I looking for? If they couldn't
find anything-"
Barney handed him a page, "They didn't know what they
were looking for." He glanced once at the picture of
Lee, snuck after some long job; tired and grim and
looking away from the camera, appropriate pouring rain
running down the cabin's curved glass behind him.
Everything in shades of grim grey.
Barney locked eyes with the kid, shoving the
disheartening memory back down, "He's ex-SAS. Sniping
isn't his first love, but he's damn good at it. I
watched him pull shots with an old L96A1 that made *me*
jealous as hell, and he knows how to get around without
being noticed; natural chameleon. They don't know what
to look for. You do. Watch the roofs before. Get the
surrounding camera feeds after. Look for a shadow. Look
for where your eyes try to slide away."
"Could take a while."
Barney grimaced at the glum kid, "Just find him."
It *might* be a waste of time. Might. Was possible Lee
was ignoring his calls out of perfectly reasonable
annoyance. Or because he was too drunk to answer.
Neither of which stopped the acid bubbling in his gut.
Stonebanks was sure to have had more enemies than God
and the President put together; and most of them were
almost certainly killers. It didn't have to be Lee.
----
He found the rest of them at the hospital. Lee
conspicuous by his absence.
Looking each of them in the eye, he asked as quiet and
neutral as he could when all he wanted to do was snarl
and rant, "Where is he?"
Toll shook his head, knowing him too well to bother
asking who he meant. "Haven't seen him since he took off
after you, Barney. I've tried getting in touch with him,
but he hasn't answered my calls."
So. Not just ignoring Barney, then. Could still be on a
drunk in Key West.
Gunner just shook his head, grim-faced.
But Doc.. Barney stared at him, hard, until the old
Expendable waved him off. "Yeah yeah, enough, Barney. He
came to see me that night. Shared some beers," he
shrugged, "And asked a bunch of questions about
Stonebanks."
Barney's eyes dropped shut. Shit.
"Barney?"
He looked up and met Toll's worried look, feeling a
sliver of ice lodging itself in his chest, "Someone shot
Stonebanks in front of a Warsaw hotel with a long-range
riffle last night."
"Christmas?"
Barney forced a shrug, meeting Doc's eyes, "It's just a
guess."
----
When the kid shouted his name across the hangar a couple
hours later, he knew damn well it was no guess.
His laptop had a frozen image of a modern glass
skyscraper in night-darkness, but with the glow of a
small city around it.
"Found the sniper, at least," he saw Thorn give him a
short glance as Barney's eyes searched for a familiar
shape, "You'll have to tell me if it's him. Hard to
recognize."
The video started playing, focused on the rooftop. At
first all he saw was the darkness of shadows. Then a
burst of movement separated itself.
"One shot. He didn't wait to see if Stonebanks was dead,
just shot and then started packing up."
Barney's lips twitched, "He wouldn't need to see. He'd
know when he took the shot. And even if something went
wrong and he missed, he couldn't afford to take a second
shot. Christmas follows plans." And nagged those he
cared about so they followed them too.
Thorn nodded, "Yeah, I can see that." He pointed to
where the figure was frozen where he'd stopped the feed,
"This is the opposite side from the International;
unlikely any of Stonebanks' bodyguards would make it
around to spot him. He ties a rope of some sort and
jumps off."
Barney tried to keep thoughts of where the *fuck* Lee
WAS from running away with him as Thorn tapped away at
his keyboard.
A different view of dark glass appeared, "I found a feed
facing that side." They watched a shadow drop from the
roof, and then stop a dozen floors down. "Looks like he
either found a window that actually opens, or he cut the
glass beforehand and had it somehow holding
temporarily." The darkness of the glass seemed to
swallow the figure, followed by a slither of movement
from the roof. "Released the rope. When the goons get to
the roof in about 5 minutes, they just run around like
headless chickens; they never even slow near his
tie-off."
"Doesn't mean they don't find him later."
"That's where this gets iffy. That room he goes in has
no feed. Nor the corridors near. And I couldn't spot him
in any of the feeds that do exist. Until.." A hotel
foyer in daytime appeared.
Familiar legs, gait and shoulders strolling toward the
doors like a tourist without a plan. Barney didn't wait
for a shot of his face. "That's him." At the last second
before he passed beyond the camera's reach, Lee's face
turned as he caught the door for a tourist juggling a
baby, a toddler and a clunky camera. Square glasses, a
thin cap of white hair and not a hint of shadow on his
jaw.
"He's good."
Barney nodded silently, eyed glued on the
distance-fuzzed ones on the screen, through their even
more distancing lenses; bubble of frustration at not
being able to simply draw Lee out of that screen and
into his arms. He could be anywhere on the planet by
now. With murderous goons and the bloody Agency after
him. And Barney could do SHIT to keep him safe!
"Since I have him, I'll track him as long as I can,"
Barney reluctantly met the kid's sympathetic look, "Once
he leaves the city limits I'll be blind unless there's a
sat I can hop a ride on, but I'll put together a
recognition algorithm to net a perimeter until he passes
through something that I can find him on. It'll take
processing time, but the real problem is how good he is
at changing and blending. He doesn't exactly stick out."
Barney smirked bleakly to himself for a second: Lee
stuck out. For *him* he did. The very skills that were
making Thorn's job harder drew Barney. The sharp edges
when he whipped through bad guys like a deadly shadow.
"Just find him." Tell me no one's gotten him because I
fucked up.
----
It took the kid 36 hours to find him crossing a
checkpoint in the Carpathian mountains into Romania.
"I think I've got him at a handful of airports, now. You
need to confirm that these catches are him. None come
with any of the aliases you gave me coming up for
passengers."
Barney'd feel guiltier for the black shadows under the
kid's eyes if his own didn't feel like he'd just walked
out of a sandstorm after spending the hours staring at
his own screen, kicking his memory into spiting out
everything he remembered Lee saying about his past. "It
wasn't likely he'd reuse any of them." He watched the
stills tile out on the screen, "Not the two in the
corner." He had to lean in to check one with a long coat
hiding the body's shape, "Yeah. Yeah: know those hands."
He straightened, "The rest are him. Good job."
Thorn grunted acknowledgement. "That means I don't have
him past Mandalay. There isn't much in Burma to track
with, and I guess I haven't caught him at the borders,
yet."
Burma. "You won't." Land of a thousand temples full of
monks with shaved heads that practised martial arts in
open courtyards. All he had to do was keep his eyes down
and his pale body covered and satellites were useless.
"You did good, kid. Go home."
Only Barney's ageing memory was going to be of any use,
now.
----
He'd forgotten how it felt to stand on these grounds; or
convinced himself it hadn't been real, anyway. The crazy
pulling silence that reached right into his head. The
unnatural peace that slowed his heart. No matter how
much turmoil had ridden with him to this point.
"Welcome back."
Lee turned and met the age-paled eyes watching him with
peaceful knowing. The old bow still came natural, even
with the decade and a half since he'd last used it.
"Thank you."
The old master watched him quietly and Lee automatically
rested with the silence. There was no hurry here. You
let a person think and took the time to think your own
thoughts.
"You bring grief. Not the old anger and pain."
He'd almost forgotten the state he'd been in when he
stumbled across this place, the first time. And across
this same old man, who'd already been old *then*. "No.
Not the old anger." And not new anger. Not really. Old
man was right about that too. Part of him had understood
why Barney'd done what he had, after a few hours to get
over the stupid shock that he should have known better
than to fall into. Hurt not to have his skills be
trusted. Hurt bad that Barney'd rather die without him
than fight together. But he understood.
"Come."
Lee quietly followed the orange-wrapped man beyond the
gate, letting the atmosphere remind him how to breathe
right. The future had to wait; worrying about it
wouldn't help anything.
----
You're struttin' into town like you're slingin' a gun.
The relief that rushed through Barney when he stepped
around a last tree and saw the familiar back sticking
out of the water in front of the waterfall the old man
had sent him to almost made him stumble. He threw a hand
out to catch himself on the damn tree and just stood
staring blindly, waiting for his strength to come back.
Safe. He was safe. Not taken at the last minute. Not
wounded and dying.
He'd been too locked on finding Lee for the last too
damn many hours to notice much of anything. Now the
steaming day's bright sun and clichéd chirping birds and
fresh falling water were a shock to his system.
And if a sarcastic little voice at the back of his mind
pointed out that the slick skin rippling as Lee soaped
up and then shifted around to rinse off was damn
beautiful, and attached to a guy he loved and who'd
*kissed* him the last time they saw each other, well,
Barney had other priorities than to figure out the most
shocking thing affecting him.
When Lee looked like he was done and just relaxing in
the sun, Barney took a step out from under the trees
into the few feet of clearing in front of the pool the
waterfall had created in the small river.
Lee had turned to him before Barney'd finished taking a
step, and stared at him calmly.
"You coming home?"
Lee snorted at what was probably a rude opening line,
before walking toward him, the shallow water dropping
below his waist within steps of the fall. Barney jerked
his eyes up to stick to Lee's when he caught sight of
the shadow of a knife sheath on a muscled thigh. Wasn't
that he hadn't seen Lee naked before, but.. it was
different when he couldn't help but think of- And Lee
was too damn observant. And had a clear line of sight.
And this was NOT the plan.
"Was gonna wait a few weeks and then make sure no one
was after me before I started haunting you into dropping
the martyr gig."
Barney couldn't see the hint of smile relaxing Lee's
water-glistening lips when he got too close for them to
fit his peripheral vision, but it was there in the man's
eyes. Forgiving softness that Barney didn't deserve when
he knew he'd hurt Lee's feelings by trying to keep him
safe. "Anyone comes after you I'll damn well kill 'em."
" *We*'ll kill 'em."
Damn. Barney grimaced at the quiet rebuff. "We."
Lee nodded, expression back in that hidden smile. Then
wet hands came up and started undoing the buttons of
Barney's old cargo shirt.
And his brows flew up; not that he objected, but he'd
pretty much expected to have to cajole and probably even
beg- "Lee?"
A smirk escaped, no doubt at the slight breathless edge
to the name, "Most people wash up before they go
courtin' after a long flight in hot conditions," at the
raised brows and tug on admittedly sweaty material,
Barney held his arms out to the sides enough that Lee
could push the stiff cotton off his shoulders, more than
a little startled to have someone undressing him ('Let
along a naked mercenary.' 'Shut up.'), "But I'm a
flexible guy; I can deal with a change of tradition. Let
me introduce you to my shower."
Barney snorted a surprised chuckle, raising his arms up,
this time, to have hit t-shirt pulled off, "Courting??"
Lee's response was muffled by the cotton being carefully
pulled up past the knife strapped to his back, "Asking
me to come 'home' and then checking out my assets?" when
Barney's head popped back into the bright day it was to
Lee giving him his widest grin from bare inches away,
inches that shrank until there was a hard chest against
his, water-click as the legs pressing to Barney's chinos
hard enough that he felt them getting damp, "I'd call
that Barney Ross' idea of courtin', yeah."
Any response he'd had vanished when a hand slid into his
pants without a by your leave and left Barney frozen and
just staring at the simple joy in Lee's eyes. Only
distantly aware that his zipper was getting lowered
behind that 'protecting' hand.
About the time the hand pulled away from his definitely
stiff dick, Barney managed to clear his throat, "I take
it you hand out on the first date?" He was pretty sure
he hadn't expected anything to come of that kiss, but
right now he wanted Lee safe at his side; the outright
fear he'd felt not knowing where he was was stronger
than his old demons and their threat to everyone near
him. Even *this* near. And.. how long had Lee *wanted*
this?
He grinned slowly, helplessly, as he watched Lee crack
up at his question, shoulders shaking with laughter as
he pushed the chinos into slithering down Barney's legs,
"A, I think the 15 years we've had together should count
as at least a dozen 'dates'. B," the smile turned into a
leer as fingers caught the sides of Barney's underwear,
"You can have hands, along with whatever other body
parts you want," that was too much of an invitation to
resist, and Barney got both of his palms sliding on hard
pecs as Lee pushed teasingly slow at his waistband,
"I'll sure as fuck be pawing every inch of *you*."
AN:
- L96A1: oh the weird things we end up
researching...
- That first disguise was totally inspired by Parker
- and of course the sniper is from FF7
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