The Rusty Fox by Becca (Character development session)

It was in that blissful moment, Maria Stiletto had the first flashes of who she used to be. Her eyes fluttered open and tension in her body that she didn’t even know was there, melted away in a brief moment of total calm. She gently pushed the collapsed Henry off her, sat up slowly and then walked carefully and deliberately to the mirror in the corner of the room. She stared at the form before her that had once been alien. Curvaceous figure that she had soon learnt to work in her favour. It was always aided by her full lips, particularly when they were rouged, her flirtatious dark blue eye and the impossibly red locks of hair that fell to her breasts. She overheard men in the bars call her ‘The Vixen in Stilettoes’ and she’d acted up to it to get by when she first ended up here. Now she stared at the scars on her hips, smattering her thighs and then swivelled to see those across her back. It all suddenly seemed familiar.

“Maria Stiletto? Is that what you call yourself now?” Henry drawled, in her ear as he reach across to pick up his glass from the Bar.

She pushed her hair behind her ear and gently caressed it as his smooth voice had.

“Oh Nanc-I mean Maria, you couldn’t be a darling could you? Just drop this in town on your way to the shop” Henry smiled as he ran his hand down her back and brushed past her in the Café.

Maria’s face scrunched up with confusion as it had done then. Then she relaxed it. She calmly reached into the drawer below the mirror and slowly picked up her pistol then spun to face Henry’s dozing form. “You knew did you? You knew me?” She growled. Henry’s body stiffened before he slowly rose to sit and face her, staring at Maria and the barrel of her gun. He sighed, “Yes. I knew you.” Maria took a step closer, gun still poised with her finger on the trigger, although Henry barely looked surprised. “Talk.” She spat. Henry sighed again and lowered his head to his hands again, “As soon as I saw you in that bar, I recognised you. Your hair gave you away. I spent an hour or so skirting around you, out of your vision, but close enough to marvel at the fact you haven’t aged a day. Eventually, I mustered the courage to come over and say hello. To begin with I figured you were on a case, I figured that was why you acted like a stranger and used an alias. It wasn’t until we started talking I realised you weren’t on a job, you weren’t even on the team anymore…hell I realised you probably had no idea there was even a team… “The last time I saw you was…god…was it really 5years ago? It must be… You had a blonde wig, and you were striding out of the Head Quarters, head held high, about to embark on the deepest undercover job of the century. You spotted me and walked over, making sure the rookies could see as you planted a big lipstick laden kiss on my cheek and whispered “Don’t wait up, Henry dear” before winking and striding off.” Henry paused, evidently lost in the memory then muttered, “We always said when it was all over, when we were too old for that life, it wouldn’t be an act with the odd night between jobs to escape anymore… “The job must have gone wrong… the Committee never spoke of you and I always hoped you were still working it, but deep down I guess I knew… I asked a few times but they avoided me and changed the subject rapidly.” Henry let a tear fall, “Seeing you in that bar was the biggest relief of my life, then…then having to start a new with you seemed a small price to pay to just have you back…” Maria lowered her gun and reached for a dressing gown to wrap around herself. Everything he’d said seemed to fit with the flashes she’d just moments before…and the scars. She walked back over to the bed and whispered, “Who was I?” “Nancy Fox, undercover agent for R.U.S.T USA- Reconnaissance and Undercover Service Team for the USA. You were the best agent they ever had.” Henry smiled, then his face fell, “I’m sorry I betrayed your trust, Maria…I just…” Another solitary tear fell and before Maria, or Nancy, or whatever her name was, knew what she was doing she reached forward and kissed the tear away, and more memories came flooding back. She didn’t know everything yet, but she was pretty sure if it was important Henry was the key to remembering it.