dialogue with him, and any abrupt change in that pattern is going to tip him off.'
Felicia nodded in agreement. 'Understood, Commander, and we have been watching both the length of the exchange and the exact nature of our responses very carefully. Nevertheless, I don't want to miss an incoming.'
'Agent Ryan should be here within the next hour and I would like to conference as soon as she arrives,' Cam said flatly. 'After that, you're both off for six hours. And I mean 'out of here' off.'
They barely acknowledged her order before they turned back, heads close together, to a stack of printouts, intent on reviewing all of the previous communications from their intended contact. She knew she was going to have to force them out of the command room later.
'I'll be upstairs in the Aerie,' Cam said as she passed the agent who was monitoring the building surveillance cameras. None of them had strayed far from Command Central for the last eighteen hours. Once they had decided to go forward with the FBI's plan to lure Loverboy into a public confrontation, she had put them all on twelve hour shifts, but she noticed that no one was actually gone for more than a few hours at a time. Everyone had a personal stake in catching the man who had cost them all a friend and colleague.
She glanced at her watch. It was ten-thirty in the morning, and it had been twenty-four hours since she had last seen Blair. She had been at the command center most of the previous afternoon, enduring another meeting with Doyle while they hammered out their respective roles in the upcoming endeavor. She had been forced to accept that the decision regarding Ellen Grant's participation was out of her hands. She had let it go, choosing instead to focus her energy on assuring Grant's safety. If she needed to be on site twenty-four hours a day monitoring events to do that, then she that's where she planned to be.
It had been close to three AM the previous morning when she had finally headed across the square to her apartment. She had stopped at the corner and glanced up at Blair's window. A faint glow illuminated the double panes of glass. She had wondered if Blair were working, and had wished for a moment that she were sitting nearby, quietly watching, as she used to watch her mother work when she was young. It was the kind of memory that brought a longing for something she hadn't known she missed and couldn't afford to consider now. She had shrugged it away and continued up to her small, impersonal apartment for a few hours of sleep before the battle truly began.
*
Blair stood before the canvas, a fine sable brush in one hand, lost in the sensation of color and contour, not thinking of anything at all. It took her a few seconds to recognize the sound at her door as knocking. She put the brush down and glanced once more at the painting, knowing that when she returned, she would have it. She turned and crossed the polished wood floor, glancing at the clock, surprised to find that she had been working for several hours. She hadn't thought she would be able to. She hadn't thought that she would be able to do anything at all except wonder what was happening downstairs. That and think about what she intended to do about being crazy in love with her security chief.
She glanced through the peephole out of habit and, as it always did whenever she saw her, her heart rate seemed to triple. She pulled the door open and leaned against the doorframe, regarding the tall, dark-haired woman in the immaculately tailored suit.
'You're early for the briefing, Commander,' she commented, blocking the doorway. 'We aren't scheduled until three.'
Cam nodded gravely. 'I'm aware of that, Ms. Powell. However, I have some pressing matters to discuss with you.'
'Oh?' Blair said with a shrug, stepping back from the door and closing it slowly. When Cam turned, Blair had silently moved very close to her.
'And what matters would those be?' Blair asked, sliding her fingers under the edge of Cam's jacket, her voice a husky murmur.
Cam very slowly put her hands on Blair's waist and drew her near. Captivated by the variations of blue in her eyes, she answered deliberately, 'Personal matters.'
Then she lowered her head and kissed her. It was a long, slow, thorough kiss that spoke of longing and desire and something else. Something beyond words, at once tender and heavy with need. When Cam lifted her mouth from Blair's, they stood silently, arms around one another, just feeling.
Finally, Blair stepped back, a crooked smile on her lips. 'I'm glad you had them turn off the surveillance cameras in here.'
Cam grinned. 'So am I - although this wasn't what I had in mind at the time.'
'Can you talk about what's happening with - all of it?'
Cam laughed, trying to ignore the insistent throbbing deep in her gut. 'Well, my attention is on something different at the moment. I'd better have some coffee if you want me to think.'
Blair took her arm and started to pull her towards the kitchen. Then she hesitated, turned, and grasped Cam's face with both hands. She pulled her head down and kissed her, hard and fierce. When she pulled away her knees felt weak and Cam looked slightly stunned.
'Well,' Blair gasped softly, running her hands over Cam's chest. 'Now I guess I'd better have some of that coffee, too.'
A few moments later they sat facing one another at the counter, their hands lightly touching.
'What's going on?' Blair asked quietly.
Cam told her about Doyle and Grant and the operation underway.
Blair watched Cam's face while she talked, listening for the things she wasn't saying. She had spent her life listening to her father and his associates discuss everything from foreign policy to armed intervention, and she knew something about strategy. She also recognized when some things were being glossed over or omitted altogether.
'You can't intend for Grant to take him on herself?' Blair said when Cam finished outlining the basics of the plan.
Cam shook her head. 'No. Once we establish rapport and convince him that he really is speaking to you, we
