Countdown (S2E5): Episode Tag

Disclaimer:  I do not own either of the Mission: Impossible series or any of the characters therein.  I receive no compensation or any other tangible benefit from this story.  I am just a fan who enjoys taking the team out for an adventure every now and then.  🙂

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Author's Note:  Every time I watch this episode, Grant's reaction to the death of Su Lin captivates me.  He was clearly troubled by it, but his feelings (naturally) were not addressed directly during the episode.  Hence, this story.

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The airport was crowded for such an early hour.

One by one, Jim, Max, and Nicholas had already dropped off their luggage and moved to the gate to await their flight out of Kangji.  Shannon had just finished check-in and was lingering two steps from the counter, waiting for Grant to follow suit.   As he placed the large bag onto the luggage drop and turned toward his teammate, he stumbled slightly to the right.

Grant hissed and his teeth clenched briefly.  He quickly recovered and forced a smile at Shannon, but she wasn't fooled.  The pretty female agent gently touched Grant's arm.

"That leg still bothering you?" she asked softly, her voice barely audible.

Initially, Grant shrugged, but when he met Shannon's eyes and saw the genuine concern there, being dismissive wasn't so easy.

"Once in a while," he admitted.  "It was pretty sore this morning.  And there's a hell of a bruise."

"Su Lin really did a number on you, huh?" Shannon smiled slightly.  It was meant to be funny, perhaps a bit teasing -- the idea that a diminutive female like the terrorist from their most recent mission could have gotten the upper hand in a physical confrontation with a man Grant's size.

But Shannon's smile quickly faded when Grant dropped his head and began walking away from her and toward their other teammates sitting at the gate.

Shannon cursed to herself.  She glanced up at the clock near the terminal.  They still had a good twenty minutes until their flight was set to board.  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a small coffee shop and it spawned an idea.  Without further hesitation, she grasped Grant's hand and led him in that direction.

Nicholas looked up from the magazine he was reading and raised an eyebrow.

"We're going to grab some coffee," she said breezily, and Nicholas nodded and went back to his reading as Shannon led Grant to a round table and waited for him to sit down.

"Stay put," she commanded softly, and Grant complied as she rushed to the counter, ordered two coffees, then hurried back to the table.  She set the coffee down in front of her teammate, who gazed at it, as Shannon took the seat across from him.

"Grant."  Shannon waited until the Black agent looked up and met her eyes.  "Grant, I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't," Grant answered quietly, as he tilted the coffee cup to his lips and gingerly took a drink of the steaming beverage.  He put the cup down on the table and left his hand where it rested.

Shannon reached for his hand. "It's Su Lin, isn't it?" she asked, her voice as gentle as her grasp.  "You're still thinking about her."

In an instant, a thousand different explanations for his current mood flooded Grant's mind.  He was tired.  He was sore.  He'd been seconds away from being blown to shreds by a nuclear warhead.

But the truth was, Shannon was right.  He knew that she knew it, and he knew that he couldn't lie to her.  He never could.

"I know it's crazy," he answered dismissively.  He looked up from his drink to meet his teammate's gaze, wondering what she thought - what they'd all think - knowing that he couldn't get the young woman off his mind.  She'd been their enemy, for heaven's sake; the one they'd been working against.  This wasn't supposed to happen.

Su Lin was dead.  The mission was over.  It was time to move on.

"It's not crazy at all," Shannon disagreed softly, squeezing his hand just a little harder, her eyes harboring nothing but sympathy and understanding.  "You spent quite a bit of time with her.  Handcuffed to her for most of that.   You knew more about her than any of us."

"You heard everything, too," Grant reminded her.

"Almost everything," Shannon corrected, recalling both the wire that Grant had been wearing underneath the bandage on his shoulder, and the moment that Su Lin had discovered it.  "But you were there.  In person.  For..." A slight hesitation.  "...all of it."

Shannon watched as Grant's countenance sobered and the pain flickered in his eyes.  Knowing that he was reliving the moment that Major Chung had killed Su Lin, Shannon reached out with her other hand to grasp his.  "That must have been hard, Grant.  I'm so sorry."

Grant smiled slightly at his friend and took another drink of coffee, then his smile faded again as he cast his eyes downward.

"Su Lin did some horrible things," he mumbled.  "Killed people.  Armed a nuclear warhead in the middle of the city that could have killed thousands."

"Like Max said back at Jim's condo," Shannon recalled, "'any means to an end.'"

"Means which weren't justified," Grant  said emphatically.  "But Su Lin did it all out of devotion to the Holy One."  His voice grew quiet.  "Her own personal crusade."

Shannon squeezed Grant's hand again.  "Grant, Su Lin's passion and loyalty may have been misguided.  But still very admirable qualities.". Her eyes met the soft brown ones of her teammate.  "It's okay to respect her.  It's okay to regret that she died."

"She shouldn't have died.  Not like that," Grant whispered sadly, his eyes moist.  "She was loyal to Xang Kai, but he thought otherwise, because of something we orchestrated.". He sighed heavily.  "Now I kind of know how Nicholas felt when Jeru was killed."

"Xang Kai had no intention of letting Su Lin escape with her life, Grant," Shannon countered softly.  "What we did wouldn't have mattered.  She knew too much."

"Maybe you're right, Shannon," acknowledged the black agent thoughtfully.  "But she died thinking that Xang Kai betrayed her."  That I betrayed her, Grant added to himself, a thought which inexplicably troubled him even more.

Though he'd left the thought unspoken, Shannon read his expression like a book.  She'd been sitting beside Grant when he was working on rearranging Su Lin's words to convince Xang Kai that she'd stopped the timer.  She'd seen his face.  She knew, perhaps more than the others, how hard the young terrorist's death had been for her friend.

Shannon bit her lip and was quiet for a moment, struggling to come up with the right words.

"Su Lin knew that it was wrong to explode the weapon," the female agent said carefully.  "In the end, she wanted to do the right thing.  And you tried to help her.  Tried to stop her from getting herself killed.  That's all you could have done." Shannon paused again, waiting for Grant to meet her eyes.  "There's no fault here, Grant.  Not from any of us."

Grant sat still for a moment, allowing her words to sink in.  Then he looked up and slightly smiled his thanks.  Shannon knew how he felt.  She understood.  And that meant everything to him.

In the next moment, a female voice came over the loudspeaker, summoning the passengers at Gate 14 - their gate - to prepare to board their flight.  Shannon glanced toward their other teammates, who were staring back at them while getting to their feet, their gazes silently beckoning.

Shannon nodded toward them, indicating that she and Grant had heard and were on their way. 

"There'll be a formal debriefing once we're back at the condo," Shannon advised, as they stood up.  "We can talk more then."

"No, Shannon," Grant disagreed gently, laying a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it fondly as they walked.  "I'll be all right now.  Thanks for the talk."

"You're welcome, Grant," she smiled warmly, patting his shoulder as they fell in line behind Max and slipped through the gate.

The End.

(c) 2019