Well, Thanksgiving Day has passed in the USA. I wonder how many chairs have Broken because people have packed on more pounds than the furniture can support? Anyway, I hope you all have the energy to write a response!

Just a small bit for this week: "And how are we today?" the woman asked, her cheeks apple red at either side of her wide smile. "Just fine," Red Impulse answered, giving the woman his full attention, "and your lovely self?" "Oh, I can't complain," the woman said, putting her hands on her hips.  "It's always a good day here." "Yes, and I can see why," Red Impulse said, giving the woman a small half-smile, his eyes never leaving her face.  "Anyone in the presence of such beauty would think that." The woman blushed, a little uncertain at his words.  "Well, we think our little village is special, certainly." "But it is the people within who make it so, especially with such pretty girls," he countered.  She raised a hand and patted down her springy brown and gray curls. "Well, I suppose that is true," she admitted, then tossed him a coquettish look.  "Were you planning on doing anything special today?"  Then she added quickly, "with your daughter?" Red Impulse flashed her a smile.  "Nothing in particular, but I would love to hear what you would recommend." "Oh, well, the Skarsgardt Falls are always something to see," the woman said, shifting her eyes to his face and then away and then back again, as though she had lost the ability to focus.  "Witterdon Castle, of course, which is why most people come to this area, but there are many other, less well known, spots too.  Will, ah, your, ah, wife be joining you later?" Red Impulse's face turned to one of sadness.  "Unfortunately, no. I am a widower and no one else will be joining us." "Oh, I am sorry to hear that," the innkeeper said, looking anything but.  "It's always hard to lose a loved one.  But there are still a great many things you could do around here, though." "Really?  Like what?"  he asked,  inclining his head, his eyes never leaving her face, as though he found her the most fascinating person on the planet.  Jun sat there, stunned at what she was witnessing. The innkeeper, however, bloomed and grew expansive as she expounded on the joys of the village.  There was the village square, which was more a park than anything, hiking and bike trails (if one were so inclined), and shopping in the village itself (if one were not). The innkeeper then batted her eyelashes at him.  "So is there anything that catches your fancy?" He gave her another half-smile and a knowing look.  "Quite a bit, but I think we'll have to just keep it limited to the village and environs for today." "Oh, you," the woman said, reaching out and nudging his shoulder. Jun's mouth fell open at this entire exchange.  She knew it was rude, but she was simply too taken aback at what she was seeing. Red Impulse caught the woman's hand and placed a kiss at the back of it.  The woman turned scarlet red to the point that Jun worried the woman would have a heart attack on the spot. "Thank you, my dear, for being such excellent help," he said as he released her hand.  She, however, did not let go of his until a second or two later, when the sound of another couple walking in caught her attention. "It ... uh ... it was my pleasure," she said in a voice that was slightly breathless, tossing resentful looks in the direction of the newcomers.  "If you need anything else, please, just give me a call.  Day or night, doesn't matter.  Oh, and by the way, you can call me Madge." "I will," Red Impulse said as solemnly as taking a vow.  "Thank you, Madge." Madge stood there a moment longer, basking in his adoring gaze, before she finally, reluctantly, pulled herself away and went back to her tasks. Jun was aware that her mouth was still hanging open when Red Impulse finally turned his attention back to her, but she seemed to lack the ability to close it on her own.  She had thought she had seen every side there was to this man, thought she knew him and was a good judge of character, but never would she have thought him capable of flirting -- him actually flirting! -- if she had not seen it with her own eyes. She acknowledged that he was good-looking, but it never occurred to her to think how he would look to other women, especially when he chose to be his utterly charming best.  Even she had a hard time reconciling the hard, cold, distant man that she always believed him to be with this genial, calm man who had a way of looking at a woman that made her think herself so special, so fascinating, that he could not bear to tear his eyes away from her. Pity he didn't teach that to the guys when we had that training session on the island, Jun thought. she could not imagine either of them looking at her the way Red Impulse had been looking at Madge just now.  Then a flash of a thought went through her mind and she gasped in horror.  Could it actually be that he was attracted to her? He picked up his coffee cup and took a sip. "Something wrong?" he asked, a look of devilish innocence on his face. "That was ... that ...," Jun stammered, trying to recover.  She leaned in over the table and lowered her voice, conscious of Madge, who still only half a room away and still tossing glances their way over her broad shoulder.   "Why?" "Why what?" Jun blinked at him.  "Why what?  Are you kidding me?" she hissed out, trying to keep her voice to a whisper.  "What was that, anyway?  Don't tell me that you ... you're ... that you like ... uh ...." Red Impulse took another sip from his cup then very gently, very deliberately, set it back down into the saucer as though one hard touch would render it broken. "If the question that you're struggling with is do I find her attractive, the answer is no," he said, his voice so low that Jun was doing more lip-reading than hearing, "but I do find her useful.  This is a small town and I have no doubt that she is but one leaf on whatever gossip vine they have here.  She will now corroborate our story better than anything we could have done ourselves, and if anyone's looking, they will now think that we are what we look like -- tourists.  And besides, it never hurts to have someone on your side and all for the price of a little attention and flattery." He sat back just as the girl brought over their plates and set them down. "Here you go," the girl said.  "If you need anything else, just let me know." Even after the girl left them, and Red Impulse started in on his omelet, Jun could only stare at the pancakes before her.  They were light, fluffy golden discs, dotted with large juicy blueberries.  A pat of butter pooled in the center of the top one. "Something wrong?" Red Impulse asked once again. Jun looked up from the pancakes to his face.  "How can you do that?" she blurted out. "Do what?" "How can you go from being ... you know, you ... to being that warm, caring human being and back again, like you're turning a switch off and on?" "I'm not sure that sentence is completely grammatically correct, nor entirely complimentary, but I think I know what you were getting at.  The answer is easy.  One of the basic rules of spying, in fact.  Be who you need to be." "But if you keep doing that," Jun said, thinking out loud, "then what happens to who you really are?  Do you ever ... I don't know ... get lost in it then?"

An excellent question, Jun.

I am so loving this story! Good question indeed!

Thanks, ED! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I must say, at first I wasn't so sure about RI and Jun together, but it's actually quite fun to write and they have an interesting dynamic going on.

Sometimes we do our most interesting work when we blend characters we never expected to use together.

It's a very interesting pairing and I'm enjoying the closer look at Red Impulse!

[unrecoverable text]

I've got some annoying family issues going on so maybe I'm extra biased when I say this, but they're being far too nice and helpful to Nambu. He's basically destroyed everything they worked so hard for. Especially poor Joe! Nambu completely threw him under the bus!

I agree with Chris -- considering everything that's been done and said, I'm not so sure I would have welcomed him back quite so easily, or been that willing to help him out. At least, not without a sincere apology at the very least.

I can see where Chris is coming from, but Nambu is also their family and he's having a crisis. I can see them helping him now and then dealing with the 'fallout' later.

Well it seems my muse decided to make a brief appearance: *********************************** Bradbury`s Jar 205-- "Broken" Broken.... He thought staring down at the man bathed in the bright cone of light, laying prone on the metal table before him. He was once a broken man, now made whole. A perfect specimen; a creation molded by God, and his own two hands. He had taken the raw material, the fire which had been banked, and had breathed new life into him. No, the Condor was not done, not just yet. Rafael grunted and smiled to himself, as he continued to work, brow furrowed in concentration. He cleared his throat before speaking, accent thick upon his tongue. His voice echoing in the dark of his lab: "Which arrow flies forever? The one which has hit its mark."

Redbird: Oooh, this feels right out of canon. Of course, Joe would say that he was still broken because he was no longer human, but Raphael wouldn't think that at all!

Very nice, Redbird! I like how you captured the atmosphere within just a few lines.

I agree, Redbird, you've really captured the essence of the scene (and Joe's transformation) in only a few lines!