Chapter 2

Authors Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Sorry I haven't been online or updated chapters... school's finally over though! Yay. Lol. Oh! And I bought the OUATIM soundtrack, it's about time right? So now it's extra motivation to write and four days until Secret Window comes out on DVD!

No music was on and the television was blank and silent in the large house. The only sounds were those that came from the bedroom, but even then they were quiet whispers reserved for the time of night some call the witching hour.

"What do you think is next?"

Getting closer to the bed where a sliver of moonbeam falls across the dark blue comforter there lay two people. Sable has her head resting on his shoulder, Sands has his arms around her as if to shield her from harm.

"Retirement." He paused, "Or death, either should be fun, eh?"

"Seriously?" Sable asked initiating the 'midnight conversation,' they had one almost every night where they spoke of things that otherwise wouldn't be brought up during the day. When they were alone they were allowed to be in a relationship, when they were working it was strictly professional, well, at least a quarter of the time.

When they signed up for the job with the CIA they were informed of the many risks that would be taken. Trust no one, always be alert, and stay alive were Arnoldo's favorite sayings.

Sands had never thought of the word love before let alone experienced it, but now as he felt Sable's hand over his heartbeat he knew that's what it had to be. She was his partner, lover, and even friend, something Sands hadn't ever tried to be. Until now.

"I was kind of hoping that you'd actually move in here for good." Sands took the initiative and spoke the thought that had been turning around in his mind for days. "I mean you always go back and forth twice a week to get stuff. I just figured that it'd be more logical if everything was here."

"Of course, because you're all about the logic." Sable grinned, "You just want me here all the time to cater to your needs and to boss around when you're bored."

"Well there's that upside." Sands replied as if thinking it over, "I promise not to tire you out. What with the 'catering to my needs' and all." He laughed wickedly.

"Each and every one." She kissed him, "But it works both ways."

"I wouldn't have assumed anything else." Sands said, a little too innocently from her point of view, that was justified when he rolled with her so that he lay braced on his elbows on top of her. "Any requests?"

"No, no you seem to be doing fine on your own..."

"I love you, Sands." She said awhile later when all was quiet and still.

"Sands? Agent Sands?" he heard the voice come through the speaker box in the wall. "Special Agent Jeffrey Sands?"

"Leave it at agent," Sands replied before the man got to the Sheldon part of his name. It was hard enough carting a body up the walkway when he could see let alone when he couldn't. "I'll be right down, try coming up here and I guarantee loss of your foot at the ankle."

One look at the agents face had Joshua Muzatti instinctively reaching for his short-barreled pistol. He'd heard tales of the psycho renegade, but this was his first time meeting him.

Sands was in typical all-black attire with a new jacket to boot. None of this, however, concerned him. The only thing that interested Sands was getting Sable back and sending Dawes to hell. Preferably in the order.

"Ready?" he asked ushering Sands down the stairs.

Sands reacted quicker than lightning, a dangerously feral look twisting his features, "Rule one, never touch me. Do so again and I'll take the extremity and ram it down your throat."

After opening the door Josh opted just to let him rot there, who did he think he was ordering him around like that? It was clear that Arnoldo had underestimated Sands' mental state. A lot.

The car ride seemed to take double the time as neither of the men strove to break the silence. Sands could practically feel the hostility emanating from whomever it was that Arnoldo sent, but he couldn't have given a lesser damn. It didn't matter if they liked him, he was way past the point where he needed their approval.

Soon as the engine stopped Sands was out of the car and through the glass doors of the CIA. He upholstered one of his guns choosing not to wait for the elevator. Taking the stairs two at a time he made sure that anyone passing or walking in front of him could see it.

Not surprisingly he found no resistance, and stepped into Arnoldo's office barely five minutes later. "Is it possible for you to get here without terrorizing half the people on the way?"

"Saves time." Sands said curtly, "I got a call yesterday."

"We know, your line's tapped. Just for precautionary measures."

"Get any leads?"

"Unfortunately, not. The call wasn't long enough for us to distinguish exactly where it came from."

"So we have nothing, what're we going to do? Leaving her there isn't an option."

"First, I need to talk to you about our deal. With Mark."

Sands let off an incredulous sigh, "How does this take priority right now? One of your agents, might I add, is out there being tortured and killed to death. What are you worried about? A psychologist?"

"It's not negotiable." Arnoldo knew that the mental trauma Sands was going through didn't even begin to cover that which he'd gone through a few months ago in Mexico. Stress, especially of this kind, would send any normal man to his knees. Sable, his partner and the woman he'd recently began living with was taken by someone Sands hated beyond all reason. That had to be leaving scars.

"Well make it a negotiation." Sands felt as if he were in one of those machines that shook it's passenger upside down, all around, and back and forth. He couldn't get a footing and just when he did it would lurch to the side sending him into a chaotic backflip of movement.

"You agreed to sessions with Mark so he could check your mental stability, while working with us still. Thus far you've been to one. One, Sands."

"If you haven't noticed, this hasn't been the greatest couple of days, alright. There's the small matter of Sable being bartered back, with the threat of her life swinging in the balance. Then there's the fact that I can't exactly see what's going on, so I can't help. Just minor smidgens of information that might tend to put a block on a psychiatric appointment!"

Arnoldo was sure the ordeal would leave Sands in far worse straits than anything prior could compare with. This was one of the few times he'd mentioned his lack of sight, and Sheldon Sands was a man who used anything he could to his advantage.

He was walking even closer to the edge, holding on with the barrel of his gun, which he was aiming about restlessly even as they spoke. Arnoldo wasn't sure whether the agent was aware of what he was doing, a fact that troubled him more deeply than words could amount too.

"Look, I know that you think I need the help, but I've been fine, on my own. You didn't have any objections concerning her or I."

"Let me ask you a question then," Arnoldo had decided to go around the topic of psychiatry and to the heart of the matter. "What's the first thing you'll do when Dawes is found."

"Will I be face to face with him?"

Arnoldo already saw the tensing of Sands' hand around the gun, and his fingers inching towards the trigger. That alone was the complete truth, nothing could have said it better.

"Yes, in the same room, he's directly in front of you."

"I'm going to send the son of a bitch six feet under, and then keep digging. He'll never see the light of day again. He won't ever get near her, or me, for's long as we live. And I plan to make that quite a long time." he visibly controlled himself and resorted to humor, "We deserve the retirement watch, don't you think?"

"I have a proposition for you, then." Arnoldo motioned for the man in a long white jacket standing outside the door to come inside.

"Going into surgery?" Sands asked tipping his head to the side as if smelling the air.

"Why?"

"Latex, medicine, and there's someone else in the room. I would have thought you had better plans than that." Sands lit a cigarette, "Assassinate me at home, on the way to the car, but in your office? You'll never get the blood-stains out."

"No, Sands, Murinfry is going to operate on your eyes."

Sands didnt know what kind of sick joke this was, but he wasnt amused. Not in the slightest. He was willing to prove just exactly how not funny this whole situation was.

"Had you not noticed? They seem to be, you know, gone." Sands took a long drag and raised an eyebrow at Murinfry. The black shades were removed and the surgeon found himself staring at where his eyes should have been.

"The optical nerves are still there, my hunch was right."

"Excuse me? Hunch? Why haven't I been privy to this information yet?"

"And the invention we were working on, I think it'll work in his case."Murinfry continued.

"Invention? My case, I want explanations. Now."

"That's good, very good, and it's seventy-five percent chance of full sight-recovery?" Arnoldo inquired.

The sound of a gun loading finally caught their attention, although to Arnoldo's relief it was pointed towards the ceiling rather then at one of them. Sands could take being ignored, he'd done his fair share of it himself, even killing the person if he was mad enough, but he couldn't abide being spoken of like he wasn't in the same room.

"Murinfry is going to operate on your eyes to restore partial to full sight." Arnoldo fought the urge to grin at the ferocity stamped on Sands expression. Despite everything, on painkillers, disoriented, and blind for the first time in his life,

Sands had still looked intimidating. The first time he'd come into the office Arnoldo hadn't even known there was something wrong with him until he'd realized Sable's unsubtle signal that something might not be right.

"When can he start?" Sands asked. The sooner he was able to see, the sooner he'd be able to shoot the shit out of Dawes, get Sable back, and if the operation went well he would see her, and the blood that ran from Dawes as the bullets entered his flesh.

"In about three hours."

Authors Note: Something I was talking to PirateWench about, it just stuck... all those months passed and I haven't been able to get the thought out of my mind. So, thank you PiratesWench, and see, I've used the idea in a story. Lol. He WILL be able to see again, and this idea actually works! Thanks very much!