It’s you and me, won’t be unhappy

Jack knew he was set to be released from custody. Apparently, the Russian government had a bigger fish to fry than him, and he was going to be exchanged with a prisoner detained by the US that the Russians wanted. While that news should inherently be good, Jack knew there were still many, many people who wanted his head on a silver platter. He didn’t feel right going back to the US. His imprisonment was keeping Kim, her family, and Chloe safe. He had tried fighting against it, but President Novick had refused to listen to him.

In the end, he had at least managed to find out who the Russian agent was. He had heard of Lena Smith, but not excessively. Just another Russian spy the CIA arrested. 

The chopper landed in what he was pretty sure was Switzerland, and Jack found that his eyes were very sore from the light exposure. It was still quite cold, but not as cold as Russia. The American chopper was already there. One of the guards grunted for him to step down, and they undid his cuffs. The president was counting his four years in Russia as time appropriately served for his crimes, so he wasn’t a flight risk. Still, some of the Russian guards looked at him sceptically, like he might try to use this opportunity to show them how much he appreciated how they’d treated him. He wouldn’t. He wasn’t stupid. But he kept his icy facade to make sure they didn’t try anything, either.

However, that facade soon dropped when the prisoner got out of the other helicopter.

"No.” He whispered. He wanted to be wrong. He had been sure all those years that he had killed her. He had had to live with the fact and had hated himself for it.

But there was no mistaking the woman in front of him. It was her. It was Nina.

“Miss me?” She said just loud enough for him to hear her across the distance that separated them.

He had no words. He couldn’t quite decide on an emotion either. It was all coming back. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Nothing, nothing , could have prepared him for this.

Just next to her, Jack spotted Aaron Pierce, who gave him a subtle smile. Through his phone call with the president, he had been reassured he would be in good hands, and Agent Pierce certainly fit that description. The president had also emphasised that the Russians wanted their spy desperately, so it would be foolish of them to try to pull some stunt and hurt Jack in the exchange.

It should have reassured him, but somehow it didn’t. Their interest in Nina must have been strong if they were willing to give him up for her. They wanted her dead, Jack was sure of it, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

Pierce announced orders for them to start walking in slow steps, and the Russian warden agreed. Jack felt his heart race with every passing second as he got closer to her. He felt like he couldn’t just let this happen. He was not going to let Nina get away from him again . Sure, he could say it was from a place of anger, desperation, even, but that would be a lie. Because no matter what he told himself and what he told everybody else, his heart told a very different story.

They both stopped halfway through their path, each walking in the opposite direction, him to his freedom, her to her death. But they both slowed down as they approached each other. 

It was a split-second decision to talk to her. 

"I don't want this to be the last I see of you." He said as he stepped towards her. 

"Me neither." She replied, a look of fear on her face. It was subtle. He knew she would never show this weakness in front of others, but he knew her better.

"Velasquez and Edgeworth?" He suggested, and in her eyes, he saw a sparkle of recognition. She knew the mission he was referencing: a hostage exchange between a federal agency and a gang, but both hostages had turned out to be working together and managed to take down the gang and the agents in just one hit before escaping. They had never been caught.

She grinned at him. "It's a go."

Jack walked to the American side and Nina to the Russian one. Jack met Pierce’s eyes and opened his arms, leaning in like he wanted to hug an old friend. As he wrapped his arms around Pierce, Jack whispered a quick but heartfelt apology into his ear, then he grabbed the side gun from Pierce’s holster and aimed it at the other two guards, who hadn’t been expecting Jack to be hostile, so he caught them by surprise. Jack made sure to hit them both in the vests they were wearing, hurting them just enough to distract them but nothing more. He might be jumping at his chance of freedom here, but he wasn’t going to hurt people who had nothing to do with him.

When he turned towards Nina at the sound of gunfire, he realised she had been a lot less merciful and three dead bodies laid at her feet. Still, he didn’t have it in him to feel bad for them, considering the torture he’d suffered at their hands.

As he looked back at Pierce, he was surprised to see he wasn’t resisting. He pulled back, expecting to see his expression stoic, as it always had been. But, to his surprise, Pierce seemed to show conflict on his face.

“Go,” Pierce said. “I’ll find a way to cover for you. You’ve done more than enough for this country. You deserve your freedom. Go!” He urged him, and Jack did.

“Sentimentalist.” Nina commented as she came up behind him and grabbed his hand. He wanted to reply, tell him how grateful he was, but he realised that Pierce wouldn’t have done such a thing if he didn’t know that already.

As they started running, to where, they weren’t sure, Jack still couldn’t help but look over his shoulder, expecting someone to appear and shoot them point blank. Pierce might have given them a headstart, but someone would surely come after them. It couldn’t be that easy. It never was, not for him.

Adrenaline fuelled them for what felt like hours. The snow-capped trees all started to look uniform, and Jack got to the point where he realised that even if they’d escaped, there was still a good chance they’d die out here if they didn’t find shelter. Jack had noticed Nina had taken phones off the guards, but even a map wouldn’t help them much when they were in the middle of nowhere. The exchange site had been isolated for a reason. Eventually, however, just as Jack started to chastise himself for being hopeful, they found an unpaved road that led to a small, abandoned cabin, possibly an old hunter’s. Some of the wood on the outside had rotted. It didn’t look like it’d been inhabited in years. Right now, however, it was their best choice of protection, and there were enough logs around to build a fire later. They’d have to find food and water, too. But, one thing at a time.

Nina kicked the door in, and they got inside, grateful for the cover from the harsh wind. After they had mutually swept the house, both of them wordlessly placed their weapons on the small, dusty coffee table in the living room. Well, not their weapons, exactly, but the ones they’d taken off the guards during the exchange. Despite everything, they still had enough respect for each other to do that. They knew each other too well, even after all these years apart.

Jack sat on the spider web-covered couch calmly like they hadn’t just escaped the clutches of two countries who very much wanted them in prison for the rest of their lives. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was covered in dust and gunpowder and looked like he hadn’t seen the sun in days, his frame frailer than she’d ever seen, it would almost be domestic. Not that she looked any better.

"You think they'll give up soon enough?” Nina asked, looking outside a dirty window almost frantically as if expecting to spot a SWAT team surrounding the house. But Jack just shook his head. “Both the Russians and the Americans were ready to give us up. I guess neither side cares too much about us right now." He reasoned calmly.

Still, Nina didn’t look assured. "I don't believe that. You must have been one of their most valued prisoners with all the intel you have!" She pointed out. 

"They've tried for months to get a word out of me. They realised I'm never going to talk." She should have known that, Jack thought. Surely, she would have seen his file at some point over the last however many years. "What about you?" He wondered.

"I don't have much to give the Feds. I'm not that valuable." Nina explained with a shrug. “The Russians just wanted to silence me. They don’t actually need me; they just want me out of the US government’s reach. They’re paranoid.”

That made sense, he supposed. Although he didn’t quite know what her connection was to the Russians, that wasn’t unexpected behaviour on their part. Jack was surprised to realise that it didn’t really matter to him. Yes, he wanted to know. But it wasn’t like he would leave her or change his mind if she had betrayed the Russian government the way she’d betrayed the American government. The more he acknowledged this contentment, the more surprised with himself he became.

Had he really… just done this? Leapt at a small chance for escape all because of Nina? It almost felt like a bizarre dream to him still. He’d made peace with imprisonment, knowing it would keep Kim, her family, and Chloe safe. But just by seeing Nina, he’d suddenly gained awareness of the justice that had befallen him and recognised Nina as his only way out. He’d created chaos, and… he didn’t even care. It reminded him of the mindset he’d had when pursuing revenge for Renee, only this time, he wasn’t fuelled by grief and anger. Right now, it was curiosity and the realisation that she could answer the questions he’d had. Questions that he’d had for a very long time.

"Just ask me already." Nina finally broke the silence. It seemed she knew what he was thinking.

May as well start with the most important one, the question that had plagued him the longest, he thought.

"Was Teri a revenge kill?" It still hurt to say her name. It hurt more to say it in front of Nina, knowing he would have to see her react not with guilt or shame but with indifference.

"Teri was a mercy kill," Nina answered. "I had two options. I could have killed her, or I could have brought her with me to be used as leverage against you. They wouldn't have negotiated anymore. They would have made you watch as they tortured her." She shrugged. "I gave her a quick death." 

He cocked a brow. "And you're expecting me to thank you?" 

"No." She said simply, although her eyes told a different truth.

"Good, because I won't," Jack emphasised gruffly. Even all these years later, he had never been able to discuss this without foaming at the mouth and seething with anger.

“I know that, Jack. I’m not an idiot.” She replied, tense, snappy. It seemed she didn’t want to keep on that topic any more than he did.

Jack sighed. He was still looking her up and down as though her body would give more clues and reasons for everything. “How did you survive?”

Nina shook her head with an incredulous smile. So, he was going to play dumb. “You know how I survived. You're one of the best shooters I know, yet you missed all my organs. I know it was you who confirmed my death, and I suspect you also gave me the epinephrine and had me moved to a hospital that asks no questions.” He looked as though it had been some alter ego of his that had done that and not the person he told himself he was. “Despite everything, you still cared about me.”

There was silence. He wasn’t admitting it, but he wasn’t exactly denying it, either.

“What did you do after?” Jack finally asked, brushing over the statement.

She shrugged. “I travelled. I did what I wanted. You know me, Jack. I don’t have a purpose other than staying alive. Thanks to you, I got my second chance, so why waste it?”

“I guess I mean, what did you do to get caught?” He clarified.

“Ah, well, I’ve been a double agent for the FSB since the start. They had no idea what I was doing until I was a little careless when taking care of someone at the CIA who was onto me-”

“Wait.” Jack interrupted. “CIA? How did they not recognise you?”

She shrugged. “It’s amazing how many people simply thought Lena Smith was just a döppelganger of Nina Myers. With me being 'dead' and them thinking that I could not possibly be stupid enough to show my face at Langley, I got away with running a whole department.”

He scoffed, shaking his head. When he thought about the amount of conspiracy he’d seen within the US government in the last two decades, it, unfortunately, wasn’t all that surprising.

“It took the Russian government an embarrassingly long while to realise I’ve been playing them the whole time, so now they were pretty pissed. So pissed, even, that they were willing to give you up to have me back so they could kill me.” She smiled sadly. “Given that I practically wrote their book on torture resistance, they wouldn’t bother with anything else.”

Jack nodded slowly. He still had so many questions but couldn’t bear to ask any more. Not now, at least. And there was still the matter of getting into hiding safely. This was neither of their first rodeos, but still, she had something of hesitation on her face. It really made him think something was wrong.

“Nina, what is it?” He asked, surprised by the gentleness of his own voice.

“I-I… I need a favour once we’re out of here. I'm going to need to find a place to get my pills. It’s antiviral medication.” She explained, not meeting his eye. “I’m HIV positive.”

He nodded. That sounded vaguely familiar to him. He remembered something about Alvers being tested for it in a report and the comment Tony had made from the transcript of Nina’s questioning he’d read afterwards.“We'll find something, I promise you. Once we get fake IDs, we can falsify a prescription.”

“Thank you.” She said quietly. “Not just for that, but… you saved my life. You had every reason to kill me, but you didn’t.” Her eyes fell to the guns they'd discarded at the entry, knowing Jack could have shot her already if he’d wanted to.

He wanted to find the words, some kind of justification or way of saying it wasn’t all about love, but it would be a lie. He knew that. She knew that. 

“You’re welcome,” felt like the only appropriate and genuine thing to say.

“So… what now?” She asked. “We’ll need food, water, and a fire once night hits.”

“Let’s get that now.” Jack agreed.

He got up and started walking out. It brought back a lot of memories to see how easily they worked together. While he chopped up some firewood with an axe and located a combination of plants he knew were safe to eat, Nina got fresh water from the stream and luckily found some matches in the house to get the gas stove working so she could boil it. They then went out and hunted for more substantial food. They got a couple of rabbits and a deer, enough to last them for a few days. Admittedly, shooting down a target together felt familiar to the point of fondness. He didn’t say anything, but he noticed the way she kept looking at him when she thought he couldn’t see her and vice versa.

They managed to get themselves settled just as the sun set, eating a meal that might not be the most flavourful but was still nicer than prison food, they both agreed. Silence fell between them after, and Jack realised there was something so peaceful and beautiful about this moment. They had all the time in the world, in a way. Yes, they weren’t exactly safe and sound, but he didn’t have the feeling of panic he’d had before. Because… he was with her. Someone he, admittedly, could trust. They were in an old cabin in the middle of nowhere, freezing and exhausted, yet he’d never felt happier. He had so many emotions, and it was clear she had them, too.

They needed rest. At the same time, they needed to make plans for the future. He thought he’d be angrier. He thought he’d still look into his heart and see the pain he’d been holding for so long. However, he realised now that anger had dissipated as soon as they’d made it away from the authorities. He was staring into her eyes. He was thinking about memories they’d shared. And she didn’t seem to have any resentment towards him. There was a simple joy there that he hadn’t seen in what felt like a lifetime. Their fingers had moved across the table, so they were touching.

He looked up at her, and as their eyes met, he knew the tentative expression on her face and recognised the wordless request behind her gesture, a hesitation that brought him back to the early stages of their relationship, his body helplessly recalling every second they’d spent together. There was no denying he wanted that back, and he nodded his encouragement.

This wasn't what he had had in mind.

He thought he just wanted to have a conversation, a very hostile conversation, with Nina to find out more about what had happened, how she survived, and how she became a Russian double agent in the first place.

But now, with Nina leaning closer, her warm breath on his face and their lips about to meet, Jack realised he didn't care anymore.