[For Arthur] Operation: Open Window

[lysistrategic]

Joan's mind wheels over her conversation of the morning, even though it's not a topic she's raised with Arthur yet. No, at the moment, she and her husband are acting quite the opposite of their ages, having an early afternoon picnic on a blanket the grass by the reflecting pool. She sips the chilled fruit wine they drink in the afternoons rather than wasting the branded alcohol the island saw fit to provide her and when Arthur slips his hand into her hair to try to drag her in for a kiss, she raises her bare foot up to toe him in the thigh.

"Behave, Arthur," she says mildly, but her eyes are lit with a smile that promises a very good night for them later. "There's no name for the color Emily will turn if she catches us making out like teenagers."

Comments

[carriesabigstick]

"And no jury of your peers would convict you." Arthur adds with a chuckle but his expression sobers at Joan's comment. Not that he disagrees but there are implications. "If you do go overt, and there really isn't a reason not to beyond two. You have to consider Auggie and Annie. Those that know all three of you, how do they assume that you know each other? It won't necessarily blow their covers but they'll need to come up with plausible deniability."

Arthur's connections had been easy, Annie's work in the Smithsonian would put her in the same social circle as him for fund raisers and Auggie's work would do the same. As his wife, that could also be their connection but as he was already overt, it would have people looking at Annie and Auggie and wonder.

[lysistrategic]

"To the extent that they know anything, it's that we were working together on some high-level committees for African and Middle East cultural and technological development when each of us left the timeline and I was their boss," Joan explains the cover they've used. "But very few people have asked or been told outright. Our circles don't overlap any more here than they do at home, with the exception of the odd meal here or there and a few acquaintances in common."

It bothers Joan more than she likes to admit, how little they see of each other. Especially Auggie, whom she will always count as one of her dearest friends. Her loyalty to them is absolute, but she can't help but wonder if, out of the office, it runs the other way. For Arthur, that fear is probably very nearly transparent, but no one else would think to look. No one but Arthur knows that the loyalty of her people means everything to her, or that she fears their loyalty runs to him and not her.

"Cooper can be trusted," she says, shoving aside her concerns. "Of that much, I'm certain. He won't reveal anything he learns to anyone." Her fingers curl against Arthur's chest again. "But we'll talk to Annie and Auggie first. Protecting them comes before my frustration with idle uselessness."

[carriesabigstick]

It is only from knowing his wife so well, that Arthur sees the signs of Joan's thoughts. He wonders what could have happened between his time and his wife's. A thought he never thought that he'd have, but something clearly did for her to doubt their loyalty to her. Arthur knows that they would protect Joan long before they would him away from their world when his being their superior didn't matter.

"I will trust your gut instinct over anyone's, even a file full of documented information. I wouldn't give Annie and Auggie an option, but let them know that you are contemplating it. More of a surgical strike to give them a heads up rather than soliciting their opinion." Because while their lives will be affected, in the end the final decision was Joan's.

[lysistrategic]

Joan smiles softly and shakes her head as she smooths her hand down his chest. "I'm not their boss here, Arthur, just their friend." And with Annie, even that's tentative. "I don't have the right to overturn their lives without consulting them. They've both been here longer than I have and have lied to friends for a long time. You know how that goes. I won't make that decision for them, not without giving them a chance to distance themselves, create a story that they didn't know I was CIA, pretend to be livid for being used, or stand by me if they choose."

She tilts her head up to press a gentle kiss to his mouth. "I'm glad you're here, my love. I've missed your counsel, even when I don't take it."

[carriesabigstick]

That had been what he'd meant but he let Joan think she hadn't taken his counsel. Arthur had only meant that in the end the decision to come clean was her own and they couldn't influence it. Influence the timing, but not the final decision.

"It's always good to have another set of eyes look at a situation. It doesn't mean that you agree with the counsel, but that you listened." He returned the soft kiss. "I'm used to you listening and then following your instinct." Arthur chuckled softly, "But you always listen." It was one of the many reasons why she was an exceptional leader.