Work Text:
Monday, 5 May 2003 - 14 months after Day One, four months before Day Two
08:00, Nina and Tony’s apartment, Los Angeles
Nina had been walking past the kitchen, but the smell and noise of breakfast being cooked made her pause at the door. She watched Tony as he made it all look effortless, and a smile grew on her face. Even after all these months, it still felt strange to actually be in love with Tony Almeida. Stranger still to be living in an apartment they had bought together. What had begun as a cold calculation had blossomed into a real relationship, a real connection. Despite the added danger it brought, she wasn't sure she regretted it. Sure, such an attachment meant more risk for both of them but it felt good. The relationship with Jack had felt good, and sometimes real, too, but they had both known it could never have lasted. With Tony, there were fewer complications.
Moving away from the door with reluctance, she walked down the hallway and into the bedroom, closing the door behind her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she took out her phone and stared at the screen. If it had been just her, this call wouldn't be necessary but now she had an attachment that made it so.
In her mind, she considered in English what she was about to say in Arabic, before dialling a number and hoping she wasn't about to cause any problems.
"Hello?" a man spoke in Arabic. The background noise suggested a quiet office close to a busier room.
She glanced at the door. Mamud Faheen, her contact inside Second Wave, would not have been expecting to hear from her. "It's me," she replied. No going back now.
"Nina? Is there something wrong?"
She was about to reply when she heard Tony walk past the door, and switched to English. "That's fine, tell Paula she needs level four access for that server," she began, pausing for a second. "George can give her the pass code." She waited for Tony to walk back to the kitchen, before replying in Arabic. "I want to know before the day."
Mamud didn't respond immediately, and she could hear him muttering before he replied. "This is not information I'm willing to give you, you know this."
Nina glanced at the bedroom door. They would at best minutes on the day if he didn't. "I'm not naive, Mamud, I know what the blueprints were for."
Mamud replied in English for the first time. "What's changed, Nina?"
"Nothing has changed," Nina replied, hoping that Second Wave weren’t keeping too close an eye on her.
Mamud laughed. "You've grown concerned for your colleagues?"
"I'm the director, I can't just get up and leave," Nina replied. If she had time, she could arrange something that required both her and Tony to go elsewhere. A meeting at Division would work, it wouldn't raise any questions because they had them several times a month.
"Is there something you're not telling me?"
"No," she replied before glancing at the bedroom door. "You can trust me."
"I trust that you won't put yourself at risk. Those blueprints were sold to Wald two years ago. Why are you only now asking?"
"There's chatter, more than usual. Ali's name keeps coming up, but nobody knows why," Nina replied with a lie she hoped didn't sound like she'd just plucked it out of thin air.
"You'll let me know if CTU starts getting close?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
Mamud muttered, before replying. "The day before, Nina, but be careful," he told her before hanging up.
Nina tossed the phone onto the bed. A day's warning wasn't perfect, but it should be enough for both of them. The attack on CTU would take place earlier on in the day, before CTU had any real idea of what was going on. She could arrange something, maybe a meeting at Division that required both director and second in command. If it was to happen later on in the month, there was a monthly briefing that was always being moved around. That wouldn't raise any questions.
A knock on the door caught her attention, before it opened. Tony walked in and smiled at her, a man genuinely in love with the woman he was looking at. "Breakfast's ready."
She stood up and walked over to him. "Just had to make some calls for work," she replied before kissing his cheek. "You know I keep you around just for the cooking, right?"
He grinned and kissed her cheek. "Work can wait, we've got plans for your birthday.”
She smiled at him. "Yeah, we do."